Airlines temporarily suspends flights with Boeing after tragedy in Ethiopia

Aerolineas Argentinas,

"A statement said that it is temporarily suspending the commercial operations of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft as of today. This decision is submitted to the technical reports.
about the accident involving a plane of this type from the Ethiopian Airlines company, in which 157 people died. And this was taken after the joint badysis conducted with the ANAC, the air sector regulator in the country.

"For Aerolineas Argentinas, the essential value is safety, which is the goal that guides all its tasks.From the beginning of its operations with the Boeing 737 MAX 8, in November 2017, the company has made 7550 At present, of the 82 aircraft in the Grupo Aerolíneas fleet, five are B737 MAX 8 ", the statement said.

The company would closely monitor ongoing investigations to determine the causes of the unfortunate event that occurred with the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft. And he remains in constant contact with the manufacturer of these aircraft, the company Boeing. He is also attentive to the badysis performed by the United States Regulatory Authority (Federal Aviation Administration), as the certifier of the aircraft of American origin referred to. Both Boeing and the FAA are issuing concrete recommendations that are extended to all airlines operating this model aircraft.

For this reason, "until technical reports are received from these agencies and entities, Aerolineas Argentinas has ordered the temporary suspension of the operation of the aircraft, to ensure the safety parameters high levels that characterize the exploitation of society ".

He informs that pbadengers for whom trips are planned aboard the 737 MAX 8 will be reinstalled into the various models of the rest of the company's fleet to continue providing the service. In the case of a flight that must be reprogrammed by this decision, the company will communicate directly with the pbadengers concerned.

The reaction of the pilots

The Argentine Aircraft Pilots Association (APLA) in the afternoon ordered its affiliates not to fly Boeing 737 MAXs after the two fatal accidents with these models in less than five months.

State-owned Aerolineas Argentinas is the only company in the country to operate with these aircraft, totaling five aircraft and used for regional flights. "We were expecting the planes to be on the ground (…) They spent 12 hours and they did not answer us, we can not allow them to continue do not know what's going on, "he said. Reuters Pablo Biró, company pilot and secretary general of APLA union. Then the announcement of the company was made public.

China and Indonesia left Monday all Boeing Co 737 MAX 8 aircraft operated by their airlines, while investigators found the black box of the accident that killed 157 people in Ethiopia .

In October, a similar aircraft operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed shortly after taking off from Jakarta, killing 189 people.