EU Aviation Safety Agency to clear return of Boeing 737 MAX next week

The European Union’s civil aviation regulator announced that it will ‘unground’ Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that has been universally banned from taking to the skies as early as next week.

Troubled US -made jet had been grounded worldwide for almost two years after it was involved in two deadly accidents in late 2018 and early 2019.

Speaking on Tuesday, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) executive director Patrick Ky said the regulator would publish an updated airworthiness directive regarding Boeing 737 MAX next week.   

Airlines in Brazil and the US are already flying the aircraft, while Canada announced on Monday that it would remove the 737 MAX’s flight ban on January 20.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea 13 minutes after takeoff in October 2018, killing 189 people. In March 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed near the town of Bishoftu just six minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.In both cases, the aircraft’s anti-stall software was blamed for the deadly crashes.

The 737 MAX had only flown 500,000 flights when it was grounded, giving it a fatal accident rate of four flights per million, far higher than for most modern airliners.