President Donald Trump has issued an emergency order grounding 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft.
Planes will be grounded until further notice, and planes currently flying will be grounded upon landing at their destination. Pilots have been notified.
"The safety of the American people is of paramount concern," said Trump. "Hopefully, Boeing will very quickly come up with an answer but until then the planes will be grounded."
Prior to this announcement from the president, countries around the world, including China, Canada and the EU had already grounded the planes until a problem with the aircraft has been resolved.
Airlines such as Southwest did not ground planes but were allowing passengers to change their flights to avoid flying on 737 Max aircraft.
Before the announcement from the president, flight attendants had called for the planes to be grounded.
"Our flight attendants are very concerned with the recent Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crash, which has raised safety concerns with the 737 MAX 8," said a statement from the U.S. Association of Professional Flight Attendant.
Following the president's announcement, the FAA issued its own statement on the grounding of the planes.
"The FAA is ordering the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory. The agency made this decision as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analyzed today. This evidence, together with newly refined satellite data available to FAA this morning, led to this decision," read the statement.
"The grounding will remain in effect pending further investigation, including examination of information from the aircraft's flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders. An FAA team is in Ethiopia assisting the NTSB as parties to the investigation of the Flight 302 accident. The agency will continue to investigate," the statement continued.
Boeing issued a statement in consultation with the FAA and in support of the president's emergency order grounding the 737 Max planes.
"On behalf of the entire Boeing team, we extend our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives in these two tragic accidents," said Dennis Muilenburg, president, CEO, Chairman of The Boeing Company.
"We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be. There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again."
In a statement, United Airlines said flyers should expect minimal disruption and that the airline is using spare aircraft and rebooking passengers to compensate for the loss of aircraft.
"Nothing is more important to United than the safety of our customers and employees. We will comply with the FAA's order and will ground our 14 737 Max aircraft.
"Our Max aircraft account for roughly 40 flights a day and, through a combination of spare aircraft and rebooking customers, we do not anticipate a significant operational impact as a result of this order. We will continue to work with our customers to help minimize any disruption to their air travel.
"We have and will continue to be in close contact with investigators as well as Boeing to share data and fully cooperate with regulatory authorities," said the statement from United.
Southwest, which flies more than 30 737 Max planes, issued a statement to Newsweek indicating passengers would be rebooked for free on any canceled Max 8 flights.
"Southwest is offering flexible rebooking policies. Any Customer booked on a canceled MAX 8 flight can rebook on alternate flights without any additional fees or fare differences within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city pairs," the airline told Newsweek. "A Travel Advisory with additional information for Customers will be posted on Southwest.com."
American Airlines issued a similar statement on flight rebooking.
"Earlier today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed us that based on new information, they are grounding the United States Boeing 737 MAX fleet out of an abundance of caution. American Airlines has 24 aircraft affected by this directive," an American Airlines spokesperson told Newsweek. "We appreciate the FAA's partnership and will continue to work closely with them, the Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board and other regulatory authorities, as well as our aircraft and engine manufacturers. Our teams will be working to rebook customers as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to TravelPulse as we provide more updates.
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