U.S., Canada ground Boeing 737 Max 8s after Ethiopia crash; Spokane flyers shouldn’t be affected

March 13, 2019 Updated Wed., March 13, 2019 at 9:16 p.m.

By Zeke Miller Associated Press

Spokane passengers shouldn’t be affected

Passengers flying out of Spokane International Airport shouldn’t experience much of an interruption in service caused by the grounding of the type of Boeing aircraft involved in a deadly crash in Ethiopa.

Three of the six airlines that fly out of the West Plains transportation hub do fly the 737 Max 8, the model grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday. However, the jets that were introduced for commercial flights just two years ago make up a small fraction of the service offered by Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines, the companies said in statements released following the announcement.

The three companies are offering any affected passengers the ability to rebook canceled flights as a result of the grounding.

Frontier, Alaskan and Delta airlines do not fly the affected aircraft.

Todd Woodard, a spokesman for the airport, said Wednesday afternoon they had not been notified by any service changes as a result of the grounding order.

–Staff reporter Kip Hill

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order Wednesday grounding all Boeing 737 Max aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopian airliner that killed 157 people, a reversal for the U.S. after federal aviation regulators had maintained it had no data to show the jets are unsafe.

The decision came hours after Canada joined some 40 other countries in barring the Max 8 from its airspace, saying satellite tracking data showed possible but unproven similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and a previous crash involving the model five months ago. The U.S. also grounded a larger version of the plane, the Max 9.

Daniel Elwell, acting head of the FAA, said enhanced satellite images and new evidence gathered on the ground led his agency to order the jets out of the air.

The data, he said, linked the behavior and flight path of the Ethiopian Airlines Max 8 to data from the crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea and killed 187 people in October.

“Evidence we found on the ground made it even more likely that the flight path was very close to Lion Air’s,” Elwell said Wednesday.

Satellite data right after the crash wasn’t refined enough to give the FAA what it needed to make the decision to ground planes, Elwell said. But on Wednesday, global air traffic surveillance company Aireon and Boeing were able to enhance the initial data “to create a description of the flight that made it similar enough to Lion Air,” Elwell said.

The Ethiopian plane’s flight data and voice recorders will be sent to France for analysis, Elwell said.

President Donald Trump, who announced the grounding, was briefed Wednesday on new developments in the investigation by Elwell and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and they determined the planes should be grounded, the White House said. Trump spoke afterward with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg and Boeing signed on.

Boeing issued a statement saying it supported the FAA’s decision even though it “continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX.”

U.S., Canada ground Boeing 737 Max 8s after Ethiopia crash; Spokane flyers shouldn’t be affected

Boeing reaches tentative contract agreement with machinists union

Manhunt underway in Kentucky after highway shooting that wounded five

Starliner's troubles are latest setback for Boeing's space business