Ethiopia has reopened its airspace to Boeing 737 Max planes, according to the country’s aviation regulator, three years after one of the country’s national carrier jets crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.
The Ethiopian Airlines aircraft from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya, killed all 149 passengers and eight crew members.
After being pleased with modifications in the planes’ design and the carriers’ pilot training program, the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) lifted the prohibition.
The Boeing 737 Max planes were approved to fly again in November 2020 by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but pilot training and flight computer modifications were required.
The Ethiopian Airline crashed in April 2019 with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board ET302 from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya.
32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, eight Americans and seven British nationals were among the passengers. Another plane of the same model was involved in a crash less than five months ago, when a Lion Air flight crashed into the sea near Indonesia with nearly 190 people on board.