Shares in Boeing Co plunged nine percent this morning after the second deadly crash involving the plane. Sunday’s flight to Nairobi, Kenya, crashed just eight minutes after take off from Addis Ababa. The same model flown by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing all 189 on board. The Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered Chinese airlines to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes after the crash.
The CAA said it would contact the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing regarding the resumption of operations once they are assured that measures have been taken to ensure safety.
Ethiopian Airlines has also grounded the rest of its 737 MAX 8 fleet until further notice as an “extra safety precaution” even though it did not know the cause of Sunday’s crash.
The 737 MAX 8 uses LEAP-1B engines made by CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric Co and Safran SA. Shares in Safran also fell 1.6 percent on Monday.
Boeing said on Monday the investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines crash is in its early stages and there is no need to issue new guidance to operators of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft based on the information it has so far.
Shares of rival Airbus SE were up 0.5 percent.
A US official said it was unclear what information the Chinese regulator was acting on because the investigation of Sunday’s crash, the second involving the latest version of the narrowbody jet, was in the early stages.
Speaking on condition of anonymity as the topic is sensitive, the US official said there were no plans to follow suit, as the jet had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information on what caused the Ethiopian crash.
Tui Airways became the first UK airline to receive a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in December last year and plans to have a total of 32 in its fleet.
There are currently 15 of the aircraft across Tui’s six European airlines.
Asked if the firm would take any action in response to the Ethiopian Airlines crash, a spokesman for Tui said: “We do not comment on any speculation and we are, as always, in close contact with the manufacturer.
“We have no indication that we can’t operate our 737 Max in a safe way like we do with all other planes in our network.”
Boeing said the investigation remained in its early stages and it had no basis to issue new guidance to operators.
It was unusual to ground a plane type unless a specific mechanical issue or component failure had been identified and could be inspected, according to Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines.
He said: “In this case it is not clear what the action item is, having done the suspension.
“What is lacking now is what happened in this case.
“That means finding the black boxes and piecing together other circumstantial evidence from air traffic control recordings and so on.”
In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 on board. The 737 MAX 8 first entered service in 2017.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets.
CAAC said: “Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity.“
The grounding was due to safety concerns and not related to trade friction between the United States and China, Li Jian, the deputy head of the Chinese regulator, told reporters, the Yangcheng Evening News said.