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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2019)
Page 6 The Skanner Portland & Seattle March 13, 2019 News US, Canada Ground Boeing 737 Max 8s After Ethiopia Crash By Zeke Miller and Rob Gillies , Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Admin- istration issued an emer- gency order Wednesday grounding all Boeing 737 Max aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopi- an airliner that killed 157 people, a reversal for the U.S. after federal aviation regulators had maintained it had no data to show the jets are unsafe. The decision came hours after Canada joined some 40 other countries in barring the Max 8 from its airspace, saying satellite tracking data showed possible but unproven similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and a pre- vious crash involving the model five months ago. The U.S., one of the last holdouts, also grounded a larger version of the plane, the Max 9. Daniel Elwell, acting head of the FAA, said en- hanced satellite images and new evidence gath- ered on the ground led his agency to order the jets out of the air. The data, he said, linked the behavior and flight path of the Ethiopi- an Airlines Max 8 to data from the crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea and killed 187 people in October. “Evidence we found on the ground made it even more likely that the flight path was very close to Lion Air’s,” Elwell told re- porters on a conference call Wednesday. Satellite data right after the crash wasn’t refined enough to give the FAA what it needed to make the decision to ground planes, Elwell said. But on Wednesday, global air traffic surveil- lance company Aireon and Boeing were able to enhance the initial data to make it more precise “to create a description of the flight that made it similar enough to Lion Air,” Elwell said. The Ethiopian plane’s flight data and voice re- corders will be sent to France for analysis, El- well said. Some aviation experts have warned that finding answers in the crash could take months. Officials at Lion Air in Indonesia have said sensors on their plane produced erroneous in- AP PHOTO/MULUGETA AYENE US decision came hours after Canada joined 40 other countries in grounding the planes Foreign investigators examine wreckage at the scene where the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday killing all 157 on board, near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia March 12. formation on its last four flights, triggering an au- tomatic nose-down com- mand that the pilots were unable to overcome. President Donald Trump, who announced the grounding, was briefed Wednesday on new developments in the investigation by El- well and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and they determined the planes should be ground- ed, the White House said. Trump spoke afterward with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg and Boeing signed on. “At the end of the day, it is a decision that has the full support of the secre- tary, the president and the FAA as an agency,” Elwell said. Airlines, mainly South- west, American and United, should be able to swap out planes pretty quickly, and passengers shouldn’t be terribly in- convenienced, said Paul Hudson, president of fly- ersrights.org, which rep- resents passengers. The Max, he said, makes up only a small percentage of the U.S. passenger jet fleet, he said. “I think any disrup- tions will be very minor,” he said. “The first quar- ter of the year is the slow quarter, generally for air travel,”adding that the airlines have planes on the ground that aren’t being used on trans-At- lantic flights that could be diverted to domestic routes. Boeing issued a state- ment saying it supported the FAA’s decision even though it “continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX.” The company also said it had itself recom- mended the suspension of the Max fleet after con- sultations with the FAA and the National Trans- portation Safety Board. “We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of cau- tion,” Boeing said. The groundings will have a far-reaching fi- nancial impact on Boe- ing, at least in the short term, said John Cox, a veteran pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Sys- tems. In addition to those that have already been grounded, there are more than 4,600 Boe- ing 737 Max 8 planes on backlog that are not yet delivered to airlines. “There are delivery dates that aren’t being met, there’s usage of the aircraft that’s not being met, and all the supply chain things that Boeing so carefully crafted,” Cox said. “If they can’t deliv- er the airplanes, where do they put the extra en- gines and the extra fuse- lage and the extra electri- cal components” Even so, Cox thinks Boeing will recover, be- cause the planes typical- ly fly for 30 to 40 years, and any needed fix will be made quickly, he said. Boeing’s shares have plummeted almost 11 percent since Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash. On Wednesday, the stock sank to $363.36 after the FAA announcement but See CRASH on page 7 Obituary: Jeanette Spencer October 20, 1942 - January 26, 2019 ible energy Jeanette touched many Spencer, Port- lives. She was a land writer and survivor in the photographer, truest sense of died January the word and 26, 2019 of liver will remain a cancer. beloved icon of She was well our communi- known in many c o m mu n i t i e s ty. Jeanette Spencer A memorial as an artist, poet and playwright. In gathering will be held on the 1970s, Jeanette was Sunday, March 17, 2:30- a founding vendor of 4:30 p.m., Subud Cen- Portland Saturday Mar- ter, 3185 NE Regents Dr, ket, where she sold her Portland, Ore. Memorial Oregon Critters, a rabbit gifts will be dedicated fur covered “pet rock”. At to the completion of her the time of her death she book. More info: kristan. was working on a histo- aspen@gmail.com or vis- ry book about Saturday it www.anewtradition. Market. com /obituaries/obitu- Jeanette’s cheerfulness, ary/16941_Jeanette_Spen- courage, and irrepress- cer