An Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is parked next to a gate at Trudeau Airport in Montreal, Wednesday, March 13, 2019. Canada's transport minister says the country is closing air space to the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the U.S. is issuing an emergency order grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft in the wake of a crash of an Ethiopian Airliner that killed 157 people.
Many nations in the world had already barred the Boeing 737 Max 8 from its airspace, but until now, the Federal Aviation Administration had been saying that it didn’t have any data to show the jets are unsafe.
Trump said Wednesday that the FAA would be making the announcement soon to ground the planes.
He says any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and then be grounded.
Trump says pilots and airlines have been notified.
He says the safety of the American people is of “paramount concern.”
Locally, there are very few flights that have been impacted directly from these groundings.
“We’re very fortunate because there is only one flight per day on that type of aircraft that’s leaving Salt Lake City. It was going to Chicago O’Hare Airport,” according to SLC International Airport Spokesperson Nancy Volmer.
However, other things, like weather, have been causing plenty of cancellations. Volmer says severe weather in Colorado has forced many flights to be cancelled, so, she’s asking travelers to keep track of their flights.
She says, “We always encourage passengers to check with their airline prior to coming to the airport.”
(Contributing, Paul Nelson)