China Orders Domestic Airlines to Ground Boeing 737 Max 8 Aircraft

The Chinese government has instructed domestic airlines to temporarily halt flights of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Beijing cited recent fatal accidents in Ethiopia and Indonesia as the reason for this order. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has called for the suspension of operations of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, referring to what it described as the 'similarity' between the fatal accident involving Ethiopian Airlines and the Lion Air crash. The administration stated that the resumption of these aircraft's operations is 'conditional upon the approval of relevant measures to ensure flight safety.' This government agency indicated that it would be in contact with American officials and representatives from Boeing to obtain necessary guarantees. On Sunday, following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8, all 157 passengers on the flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya, lost their lives. Citizens from over 30 countries were on board, including eight Chinese nationals. According to some domestic media reports in China, the 737-800 aircraft will temporarily replace the Max 8. Chinese airlines, including Air China (the flag carrier), China Eastern, and China Southern, operate dozens of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. The cause of the Ethiopian air disaster is still unclear. Investigators and researchers from Indonesia's Transportation Safety Agency have focused on whether erroneous data from the aircraft's sensors caused the nose of the plane to continually tilt towards the ground, leading to the crash. The Lion Air aircraft, like the Ethiopian Airlines plane, was nearly new. In the Indonesian air disaster in November of this year, 189 passengers lost their lives. During the Lion Air incident, one of the researchers from Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee informed parliament representatives that Boeing's automated systems continuously detected that the aircraft was in a state of 'stall' and sent warnings to the cockpit. As a result, a system known as 'MCAS'—a newly implemented automated system—would automatically activate, tilting the nose of the aircraft towards the ground to prevent what it detected as a 'stall.' 'Stall' is a condition in flight where friction with the air significantly increases; this situation can occur, for example, during takeoff or landing, and since the altitude is very low at that time, it is considered potentially dangerous. The Ethiopian aircraft also crashed just minutes after takeoff.