President Donald Trump grounded all Boeing 737 Max airplanes within the U.S. Wednesday afternoon, reversing the Federal Aviation Administration’s initial support of the aircraft.
“The safety of the American people and all people is our paramount concern,” said Trump, announcing the emergency order from the White House. Trump added that Boeing is an “incredible company” working “very hard” to find an answer to the recent tragedies.
After the Boeing 737 Max’s deadly crash on Sunday—its second within six months—the European Union and several other countries grounded the model. Canada joined the ban on Wednesday, citing new information hinting at possible similarities between the crashes, and within a few hours, the U.S. followed suit.
A statement from Boeing said that while it “continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX,” the aircraft manufacturer recommended the FAA ground the fleet “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety.”
A nearly brand-new Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff in Ethiopia Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The same model crashed in a similar time frame in Indonesia last October, killing 189 people.
Questions have arisen over who should analyze the black box recorders from Sunday’s crash: Ethiopian authorities reportedly don’t want to turn the evidence over to the U.S., fearful there would be a conflict of interest in the analysis since the plane is American-made.
According to Axios, Boeing builds more than two dozen 737 Max aircraft each month at its Renton, Washington, factory and has already secured more than 4,700 orders for them.
Boeing shares dropped as much as 2.5% to $365.88 following Trump’s announcement. Boeing has lost more than $30 billion in market value since the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, according to Bloomberg.
