China taking lead to ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 signals challenge to US authority in worldwide civil aviation
- Ethiopia, Indonesia, Singapore and European Union followed suit, among others, despite US Federal Aviation Administration backing jet’s airworthiness
- Move puts pressure on US officials to explain their reasoning and future plans
When China on Monday became the first country to order all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes grounded in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Airlines crash the previous day, its aviation regulator sent an unmistakable signal: the US Federal Aviation Administration is no longer the only authority in civil aviation worldwide.
After China ordered a dozen carriers to ground their 96 planes – about a quarter of all 737 MAX aircraft in operation globally – authorities in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Morocco and Singapore quickly followed suit, along with carriers in Latin America and South Korea.
Despite the FAA issuing a statement backing the Boeing jet’s airworthiness, the European Union grounded the model on Tuesday, as did at least 10 other countries, with authorities saying the aircraft would not be allowed to fly to or from their countries pending the investigation.
China’s move, unprecedented for a government that once took cues from the FAA, was motivated by what Chinese officials and pilots said was months of equivocation from US officials and Boeing in response to safety inquiries from China after a 737 MAX 8 flight crashed in Indonesia in October.