India bans 737 Max 8 jets

New Delhi: In a major decision, Indian aviation regulator DGCA late on Tuesday night grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by Indian carriers following the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday and similar action taken by several countries including major European countries. This means that 12 aircraft of SpiceJet and and five aircraft of cash-strapped carrier Jet Airways will not be allowed to fly with immediate effect.

“The DGCA has taken the decision to ground the Boeing 737-MAX planes immediately. These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations. As always, passenger safety remains our top priority. We continue to consult closely with regulators around the world, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers to ensure passenger safety,” tweeted the civil aviation ministry.

As Britain, France and Germany joined a growing list of countries to ban Boeing 737 MAX planes from their airspace on Tuesday, the US remained the only major country not to ground the jets following a second deadly accident in just five months.

On Sunday, a new Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight to Nairobi, killing all 157 on board from 35 countries, including six Indians.

In October, a Lion Air jet of the same model crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 — but no evidence has emerged to link the two incidents.

The widening airspace closures puts pressure on Boeing, the US-based world’s biggest planemaker, to prove 737 MAX 8 planes are safe as increasing numbers of fleets have been grounded.

Earlier, civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted on Tuesday night, “Directed (civil aviation) secretary to hold an emergency meeting with all airlines to prepare a contingency plan to avoid inconvenience to passengers. While passenger safety is a zero tolerance issue, efforts are already on to minimise the impact on passenger movement as their convenience is important.”

The government had on Monday ordered the DGCA to undertake a safety assessment of the aircraft of the same make used by Indian carriers. The DGCA had also issued a list of interim safety measures in the form of fresh technical guidelines on aspects such as dual autopilot, yaw damper system, spoiler systems and Angle of attack (AOA) sensor.

Following that Lion Air jet air crash and based on subsequent inputs from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the DGCA had last year asked these two Indian carriers to take “corrective action” to address a possible technical problem in the aircraft that could lead to a loss of altitude of the aircraft.

In the light of this, the DGCA had also called for changes to the airplane flight manual for the aircraft. The technical problem that had been identified by the US FAA and Boeing was one relating to the “erroneous high Angle Of Attack sensor input” that has “a potential for repeated nose-down trim commands of horizontal stabiliser”.

As per these inputs from the US FAA and Boeing, lack of taking corrective action “could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane, and lead to significant altitude loss and possible impact with terrain”.