As countries and airlines around the globe continue to ground their 737 Max planes, the manufacturer of Boeing aircraft has continued to claim its planes are safe to fly. After the second crash of a 737 Max 8 plane in less than five months, the aviation authorities in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Indonesia, China, Mexico and other African countries have now ordered that none of the planes fly in their airspace
One will have expected the airline to be more consign about lives of customers across the globe at this time, whose life is at risk of the Boeing 737 Max family, but it seems there is something far important to this company than life. Considering the cost of grounding all 737 Max planes could be between $1 billion and $5 billion, according to estimates from Wall Street firms Melius Research and Jefferies, if base on three-month estimate.
For a company that posted record revenue of $101 billion, and a $10.6 billion profit last year, cost of grounding the aircraft shouldn’t have post a big challenge but with a company bent on setting an all financial record this year and also protecting its name across all border, it should be expected they will never oblige to the request of grounding all the baby craft.
Just the effect of last Sunday horrible crash, the Boeing’s stock has fallen by 11% this week.
In Nigeria, the President Aviation Round-table Initiative, Mr Gbenga Olowo, said the crash of the aircraft, being the second within five months and coming on the heels of the crash in Indonesia of the same type of aircraft, the safety of the equipment had come under scrutiny.
He said, “These series of fatal accidents call to question the safety in the design of the Max 8 series by the manufacturer and its certification to fly by the US Federal Aviation Administration, the safety regulatory authority in the country of manufacturing. Curiously, there had been no reported case of such fatal accidents of the aircraft in the US since the aircraft came into operations.
“While we condole with the families of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate accidents, we call on Boeing, the US FAA and International Civil Aviation Organisation to jointly consider these recurring fatal accidents on the B737-Max that have collectively claimed about 350 lives of air travellers within five months as a calamity to the global travelling community.”
He added that the aviation regulatory bodies should demand that the aircraft be temporarily grounded from commercial operations.
In a quick reaction to this, Aviation analyst, Mr Chris Aligbe, however, stated that no decision could be taken now until the analysis of the black box had been concluded.
“There is no reason for us as a country to worry now until we know the cause of the accident. It is Boeing that should be more concerned about the recent incidences,” he said”