Air Peace insists on taking delivery of B-737 Max 8 as EA, Singapore, China ground fleet
As Nigeria continues to mourn the demise of its two top flight professionals who lost their lives in the Ethiopian Airlines (EA) crash on Sunday, the company Monday, announced halting of usage of Boeing 737 Max 8 pending end of manufacturer’s investigations on the root cause of the technical fault that crashed the plane.
However, Nigerian domestic carrier, Air Peace, says it has no plan to cancel its order for 10 Boeing 737-MAX 8 airplanes following worldwide concerns about the aircraft’s safety records in recent time.
Spokesman of the local carrier, Mr. Chris Iwarah said the airline will continue to act in the interest of the safety of the flying public arguing that thinking of cancelling the purchase order remains armature.
Business Hilights recalls that ahead of the Sunday crash, B-737 MAX 8, in October 2018, the accident involving a Lion Air plane which crashed into the sea off Jakarta, in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board was also of same brand.
Iwarah insisted that the multi-million dollar deal signed between Air Peace and the American aircraft manufacturer, The Boeing Company, on September 13, 2018 for the delivery of 10 brand new B737 MAX 800 aircraft was still on.
According to him, “At this moment, it is premature to begin to talk about things and conclusions that have not been put in the public domain.
“Investigations into the crashes involving B737 MAX 800 are ongoing, so it will not be fair at this time to begin to make definite comments on those issues.
“We are still in the domain of investigation, but we want to assure the public that we are following the development very closely,” he said.
This is coming the same time, Singapore and China have ordered their carriers to suspend operations of their 737 MAX 8 jets by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) following the crash in Ethiopia, the second of a Boeing 737 MAX jet since one operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed in October.
Recall that an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members crashed on air return six to seven minutes after takeoff on a 45k m flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi Kenya on Sunday morning, killing all and burning to ashes.
In a tweet Monday, the authority said “Although we don’t yet know the cause of the crash, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution.”
Ethiopian Airlines has a fleet of four 737 MAX 8 jets, not counting the one that crashed on Sunday, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
Aviation history in Africa shows that the Sunday crash has dented Ethiopian Airlines unbeaten runs of air safety since inception over three decades ago. Besides, global pundits still believes that the airline remains Africa’s best in terms of management and safety details and standards.
