Ethiopian Air Plane Crash: Nigerians Panic Over Air Peace Aircrafts

As the world continues to grieve the death of 157 people on board the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 which crashed yesterday en-route to Nairobi Kenya from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport. Air passengers are beginning to question the safety of 737 Max 8 Aircrafts.

The reliability of the ill-fated 737 Max 8 aircraft manufactured by Beoing, have come under serious scrutiny as the Ethiopian plane crash becomes the second of the same jet variant to crash in four months.

Similar Crash

On 29 October 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 of the same Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Indonesian Airline crashed off the coast of Indonesia killing all the 186 people onboard.

Both the Ethiopian Air and Lion Air aircrafts were reportedly brand new, and both went down couple of minutes after take off in almost similar circumstances.

Ethiopian Airlines announced today, that the plane cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered from the crash site. This would aid investigators to uncover the cause of the crash. Although reports from the Lion Air crash suggest A sensor failure that wasn’t fixed by the airline.

Preliminary reports on the Ethiopian plane crash suggest that over 30 nationalities were on board the flight 302.

They included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, 9 Ethiopians, 8m Chinese, 8 Americans, * Italians; 7 French, 7 Britons, 6 from Egyptians 4 Indians, 4 Slovakians, among others, including Nigeria’s Prof. Pius Adesanmi.

Airlines And Passengers React

With the development, Ethiopian Air announced it has grounded its737 max 8 aircrafts, this was followed by China civil aviation which ordered Chinese airlines to take their 737 Max 8 planes out of service.

As the safety and reliability of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft continues to dominate news headlines, aiirline passengers in Nigeria learned that one of Nigeria’s major airline ‘Air Peace’ have reportedly acquired 10 of the controversial Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, some of them called out the airline for not being forthcoming with clarification and threatened boycott unless Air Peace cancels its order and also ground any 737 Max 8 aircraft in its fleet.

THE WHISTLER checked with Boeing, the manufacturer of the 737 Max 8 aircraft and discovered that indeed Air Peace ordered 10 of the controversial aircraft in September 2018.

Boeing during a signing ceremony of the deal in Lagos released a statement which reads;

“We are excited to add the 737 MAX to our fleet as we expand our network to offer more destinations and serve more passengers,” said Allen Onyema, Chairman and CEO, Air Peace Limited. “The fuel efficiency and superior operating economics of the 737 MAX will ensure that the aircraft will play a major role in growing our business in the years to come.”

The 737 MAX 8 is part of a family of airplanes that offer 130 to 230 seats and the ability to fly up to 3,850 nautical miles (7,130 kilometers). With improvements such as the CFM International LEAP-1B engine and Advanced Technology winglets, the 737 MAX will help Air Peace save more than 20 percent on fuel costs compared to its current single-aisle airplanes.

The MAX 8, in particular, offers airlines 13 more seats than its closest competitor, seven percent lower costs for each of those seats, and 300 miles more range. The operating advantages, along with the popular Boeing Sky Interior, explain why carriers have been choosing to fly the MAX in Africa.

“Africa is a growing market for commercial airplanes and we are proud that airlines like Air Peace are selecting Boeing aircraft to be part of that growth,” said Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president of Commercial Sales & Marketing for The Boeing Company. “This order reflects the strong demand that we are seeing for the 737 MAX as airlines choose the airplane’s superior performance and reliability.”

Boing on it’s website claims the “737 MAX is the fastest-selling airplane in Boeing history, accumulating more than 4,700 orders from 102 customers worldwide.”

As it stands, Air Peace would have to release a formal statement reassuring its customers and take a position on whether it would cancel the 737 Max 8 order or not