Singapore, Australia suspend Boeing 737 MAX flights

Singapore/Canberra: and Australia on Tuesday suspended operations of all Boeing 737 Max aircraft in and out of their airports, joining other leading carriers who made similar moves following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model that killed all 157 people on board.

The US plane manufacturer’s latest model suffered a second fatal crash in less than five months on Sunday. Australia and Singapore are understood to be the first countries to ban planes from across Boeing’s Max fleet, the Guardian reported. The Singapore suspension affected SilkAir, an arm of Singapore Airlines, that according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority operates six Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The suspension went into effect from 2 p.m. Singapore Airlines does not have any 737 MAX 8 planes. The move affected China Southern Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Shandong Airlines and Thai Lion Air as these airlines fly into Singapore and have the 737 MAX in their fleets.

Australia also banned all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from flying to or from the country. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority here said that it was "in the best interests of safety to ground the jets", operated here currently by Fiji Airways into Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. (IANS)

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