photo credit: Philip Pilosian // Shutterstock

The Ethiopian Airlines flight crash over the weekend, killing all 157 people on board, was the second crash in 6 months of the same model, Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircrafts. Back in October, a Lion Air flight, of the same model, crashed into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both of the crashes are under investigation, no evidence linking the two, but there are similarities between the incidents.

Following the Lion Air crash involving a 737 MAX 8 in October, the FAA said it had “sent out an emergency Airworthiness Directive to advise carriers and pilots on training to disengage the aircraft’s automated controls if there are anomalies.”

In response, airlines in several counties have grounded their aircrafts. In the US, the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) has declined to ground the jets, allowing American Airlines and Southwest Airlines to still fly theirs.

American Airlines has 24 of the 737 Max 8 aircrafts, and say they have no plans to ground them. In a statement, American Airlines expressed its condolences to the families of those killed, and said it would continue to monitor the investigation into the crash.

On the flight were 8 Americans, and people from across 35 different nations including a Georgetown law school student from Kenya, a noted Nigerian-born scholar Pius Adesanmi and the family of a Slovakian lawmaker.

Written by Clarke Jones

Source: CNN