DHAKA, March 13, 2019 (BSS) – The consequent two crashes of Boeing’s newly introduced 737 MAX 8 aircraft in the past five months claiming nearly 350 lives concerned Bangladesh’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAB) while several countries including neighbouring India by now banned the craft.
“The crashes of the particular craft in recent months concern us though no Bangladeshi airlines including Biman Bangladesh has any Max craft in their fleets,” CAAB chairman Air Vice Marshal Naim Hassan told BSS today.
He, however, said several foreign airlines used to operate their 737 MAX craft in Bangladesh’s airspace and airports but since the crash of Etheopean’s airlines Max craft last week the planes of the brand stopped coming here.
“Right this moment no foreign airlines are operating Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Bangladesh. The Civil Aviation Authority is observing the situation,” a CAAB statement, meanwhile, said.
The 737 MAX 8 debacles came while the country’s private US-Bangla Airlines signed an agreement for procuring 737 Max-8 craft under which a Bangladeshi airliner is supposed to operate the latest brand of Boeing for the first time.
US-Bangla last month announced that it took all preparedness to hire a Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft for 12 years through leasing company AerCap.
Approached for comments after the latest Max 8 debacle in Ethiopia a US-Bangla spokesman said they also were observing the situation.
“We will decide the matter after getting investigation report of the last crash is published,” US-Bangla spokesperson Kamrul Islam said.
Several countries grounded the craft of the brand since the Ethiopian crash on Sunday with China being the first country to temporarily decommission all its 96 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes.
Twelve Chinese airlines own about a quarter of all 737 MAX aircraft in operation globally.
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Morocco and Singapore quickly followed suit, along with carriers in Latin America and South Korea while India banned the craft for operation yesterday.
Among Indian carriers, Spice Jet has 13 jets of the model 8 variant in its 76-strong fleet while Jet Airways has five.
The US aviation regulator said on Tuesday it would not ground the MAX 8 planes. It said a review by the body “shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft.”
The Max is the latest model of the 737 series of the US company Boeing Company, the world’s biggest plane maker, and being used for commercial flight from May 22, 2017.
Boeing saw billions of dollars wiped off its market value since the crashes but insisted technically the 737 MAX was a safe craft.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 had crashed on Sunday killing 157 people on board after less than five months when 189 people were killed as a Boeing737 MAX 8 of Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea, close to Jakarta, Indonesia in October last year.