Boeing 737 Max flights banned from UK airspace after Ethiopian Airlines plane crash

The Civil Aviation Authority has banned flights by Boeing 737 Max aircraft over UK airspace in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines disaster.

The CAA said it made the decision as a “precautionary measure” after the Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, including at least nine Britons.

It was the second fatal accident involving that model of Boeing 737 in less than five months.

The UK follows Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and China in banning the aircraft, which is operated by Tui Airways and Norwegian in Britain as part of their fleets.

In a statement, the CAA said: “The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace.

“The UK Civil Aviation Authority’s safety directive will be in place until further notice.

“We remain in close contact with the European Aviation Safety Agency and industry regulators globally.”

Tui Airways, which has the only five 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by a UK-based airline and was due to begin flying a sixth later this week, said in response to the CAA announcement that other aircraft would be used to transport passengers who were due to fly in the jets.

The statement said: “TUI Airways can confirm that all 737 MAX 8 aircraft currently operating in the UK have been grounded following the decision from the UK regulatory authorities today.

“Any customers due to fly home today on a 737 MAX 8 from their holiday will be flown back on another aircraft.

“Customers due to travel in the coming days will also travel on holiday as planned on other aircraft.

“The safety and well-being of our customers and staff has remained our primary concern.”

Brian Strutton, general secretary of pilot’s union Balpa, said: “Balpa welcomes the precautionary action of the CAA in stopping commercial passenger 737 Max aircraft from arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace.

“Safety must come first. It is too early to know the cause of the latest crash and it is vital that air accident investigators carry out a thorough investigation to identify the cause so that measures to prevent future accidents can be put in place.”

Witnesses said there was smoke coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground on Sunday, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board.

Tamrat Abera told reporters the plane rotated twice before crashing and exploding and that smoke rose high into the sky.

Originally it was thought seven Britons had been on the jet, but the Foreign Office said this had been increased to nine to “reflect updated information regarding dual nationals”.

The Foreign Office said at least two additional dual nationals were travelling on non-UK passports, bringing the total number of British nationals involved to nine.

Joanna Toole, 36, a United Nations worker, was among the British victims, along with 55-year-old Joseph Waithaka, polar tourism expert Sarah Auffret, Sahra Hassan Said and Nasrudin Abdulkadir, a mother and son with dual Somali-British citizenship, and Sam Pegram, a 25-year-old from Lancashire.

The mother of Mr Pegram, Deborah, told the Lancashire Evening Post: “Sam was so looking forward to going to Nairobi. He loved the work he was doing. “We can’t believe this has happened. We’re totally devastated.”

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The paper said Mr Pegram was working for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and was heading to Kenya to work with a training programme.

The NRC said on Monday that it was “deeply distressed” by the news that two of its people were on the flight.

Ms Toole, a UN worker from Exmouth, Devon, was the first British victim to be named.

Her father Adrian told the DevonLive website that she was “genuinely one of those people who you never hear a bad word about”.

The one Irish victim was named as Michael Ryan, a married father-of-two based in Rome with the UN’s World Food Programme, which distributes rations to people in need.

Airlines are continuing to operate flights out of the UK using Boeing’s 737 Max 8 plane despite suspensions around the globe.

While Australia and South Korea followed Singapore, China and Indonesia in temporarily grounding the aircraft, some operators – including Norwegian and Tui – have so far refused to take action.

It comes as Boeing said it was “working closely” with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “on development, planning and certification” of a software enhancement, due to be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Australia’s civil aviation safety authority said it had suspended the model flying into or out of the country.

The regulator’s boss, Shane Carmody, said in a statement: “This is a temporary suspension while we wait for more information to review the safety risks of continued operations of the Boeing 737 MAX to and from Australia.”

South Korean airline Eastar Jet also announced a suspension of operations using the model of aircraft involved in Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Singapore’s own air regulator also temporarily suspended operation of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, variations of which number 7 to 10, into and out of its airports.

It comes after Chinese and Indonesian regulators ordered their airlines to temporarily ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes on Monday.

In the US, the FAA said the Boeing 737 Max 8s were safe to operate, although it had a team on the ground in Ethiopia to assist with the investigation and was continuously assessing the safety performance of the aircraft.

Several airlines serving UK airports are continuing to fly the model involved in the deadly crash.

Tui Airways has the only five 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by a UK-based airline, and is due to begin flying a sixth later this week.

Asked if the airline would take any action in response to the crash, a spokesman for parent company Tui said: “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.”

Scandinavian airline Norwegian, which serves London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK, has 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

A number of airlines have grounded their fleet of the model, including Royal Air Maroc, Cayman Airways, Mongolian Airlines and Comair, which is a British Airways franchise in southern Africa.

The passengers killed in Sunday’s crash came from 35 nations, including 32 from Kenya and 18 from Canada.

As many as 19 UN workers were feared to have been killed in the crash, the number being so high because of its environmental forum which started on Monday.