Pressure continues to mount against aircraft manufacturer Boeing as the European Union suspended all flight operations of the Boeing 737 Max model, following two major crashes in the past six months.
At least 34 airline companies from different countries have now grounded or banned the use of the airplane, meaning that about 66 percent of the operational Max 8 are now sitting idle.
Aviation experts said that pressure is also being put to other countries, including Canada and United States, to also ground their 737 planes, which was subject to safety issues following a crash that killed 157 people on a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya.
Southwest and American in the United States and Air Canada have yet to issue an official announcement on the issue.
Despite the two crash incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States reiterated its position that the Boing 373 Max 8 is considered safe and that it has “no basis to order grounding the aircraft.”
Boeing also stood firm that the airplane is airworthy, but plans to issue a software update and is now working on changes to its flight controls following the first reported crash in Indonesia last October.
