Boeing’s troubled 737 MAX aircraft may not take off again in 2019, as airlines push back the aircraft’s relaunch date again, some for the fifth time since its grounding in March.
All 737 MAX aircraft were removed from the skies earlier this year after its involvement in two deadly crashes within a six-month period, which resulted in the total death of 346 passengers and crew.
Despite Boeing having recently completed a software update that made the 737 MAX “one of the safest planes ever to fly”, airlines have increasingly delayed the planes return, with the latest being until 2 November.
If the trend continues, the plane may not take off again until 2020.
The President of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, Larry Rooney, explained the delay in the aircraft’s return as a necessity to ensure its entirely safe, USA Today reported.
“The stakes are too high to get this one wrong.”
Larry Rooney, Coalition of Airlines Pilots Associations President
“We want to ensure when this plane returns to the skies we have vetted a lot of the issues that contributed to these two tragedies.”
The first fatal Boeing 737 MAX crash took place last October in the Java Sea, 13 minutes after the Lion Air aircraft took off from Jakarta. This was followed by the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft, which was six minutes into a flight from Addis Abba, Ethiopia.
