Eastar Jet Co.’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet. (image: Eastar Jet Co.)
SEJONG, Mar. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea said Monday it has launched a probe into two B737 MAX 8 passenger planes as a precaution following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet.
A team of four officials visited Eastar Jet Co., a South Korean low-cost carrier, and began to look into the autopilot and other relevant systems of the planes made by U.S. aerospace giant Boeing, according to Oh Sung-oun, director of airworthiness issues at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The move came after a new Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX 8 crashed shortly after taking off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. The latest incident comes just months after a Max 8 flown by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed in similar circumstances.
Oh said the probe is set to end Friday and there is no plan yet to ground Eastar Jet’s aircraft, which are used on routes to Japan and Southeast Asian countries.
Eastar Jet introduced two MAX 8s earlier this year and plans to add four more to its fleet within the year.
Korean Air Lines Co., South Korea’s largest air carrier by sales, and T’way Air Co., a low-cost carrier, said they had no plans yet to make changes in their introduction of six and four B737 MAX 8 jets, respectively, scheduled for this year.
In November, Jeju Air Co., South Korea’s biggest budget carrier by sales, inked a US$4.4 billion deal for 40 of Boeing’s new B737 MAX passenger jets, with delivery set to begin in 2022.
Oh said the authorities could take measures to either delay or suspend the introduction of the jets if problems are found in the aircraft.
(Yonhap)
