Boeing will temporarily halt production of its grounded 737 MAX plane in January. The move comes in the backdrop of two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing more than 300 people.
The decision at a two-day board meeting came after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) refused to approve the jet’s return to service before 2020 and delivered what was seen as a public rebuff to Boeing’s hopes of moving faster, reported Reuters. This is the company's biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years.
As a result, a production pause as the most viable option for the US firm's management, amid backlash from across the world. Boeing had already decided to reduce its production pace from 52 to 42 planes per month after the two crashes led authorities around the world to ground the entire 737 MAX fleet in mid-March. Boeing was expecting to have the aircraft back in the air by the end of this year.
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Though the MAX has not flown for nine months following the fatal crashes, Boeing has continued production, accumulating months' worth of airplanes. "We continue to work closely with the FAA (US's Federal Aviation Authority) and global regulators towards certification and the safe return to service of the MAX," a Boeing spokesperson had told AFP. "We will continue to assess production decisions based on the timing and conditions of return to service, which will be based on regulatory approvals and may vary by jurisdiction," the spokesperson added. The halt in production would signal the plane's grounding could last longer than previously thought.
Global regulators ordered a halt to MAX flights following the deadly Lion Air crash of October 2018 in Indonesia and the Ethiopian Airlines disaster in March, which together killed 346 people.
Boeing and the FAA have been under intense scrutiny for their responses to issues with the aircraft, including the flight-handling system involved in both accidents, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS.
