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