HEJERE, Ethiopia – Norwegian Air Shuttles says it will seek compensation from aircraft maker Boeing after the low-cost carrier grounded its fleet of 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
Carrier spokeswoman Tonje Naess told The Associated Press Wednesday that the Oslo-based airline “should not have any financial burden for a brand new aircraft that will not to be used.”
On Tuesday, Norwegian Air Shuttles grounded its 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft on recommendation from European aviation authorities after Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash in which 157 people were killed.
An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman says the “black box” from the crashed Boeing jet will be sent overseas for analysis but no country has been chosen.
FLIGHT ATTENDANTS’ UNIONS URGE US CARRIERS TO GROUND BOEING 737 MAX 8 AIRCRAFTS
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Asrat Begashaw says the airline has not decided where to send the data and voice records of the flight’s last moments.
He says that “we have a range of options. What we can say is we don’t have the capability to probe it here in Ethiopia.”
The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The disaster is the second with a Max 8 plane in just five months and has set off a wave of groundings of the planes around the world.
Hong Kong will ban the operation of all Boeing 737 Max aircraft “into, out of and over” the key Asian aviation hub beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The announcement from the Civil Aviation Department cited the crash of two of the planes within less than five months and said the ban would continue “until further notice.”
The statement said: “The CAD has been closely monitoring the developments, the investigation progress and the information from relevant aviation authorities.”
It said the CAD had noted that the U.S. Federation Aviation Administration has affirmed the planes’ airworthiness and that investigations were ongoing.
It said the department has been in close contact with the FAA and other the relevant organizations, including the two airlines, SpiceJet of India and Russia’s Globus Airlines, that use the aircraft to operate flights into and out of Hong Kong International Airport.
Much of the world, including the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing jetliner involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash or banned it from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in five months.
The European Aviation Safety Agency took steps to keep the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of the air, joining Asian and Middle Eastern governments and carriers that also had safety concerns in the aftermath of Sunday’s crash, which killed all 157 people on board.
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Referring to the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people last year, European regulators said Tuesday that “similar causes may have contributed to both events.”
British regulators indicated possible trouble with a reportedly damaged flight data recorder.
