Canadian authorities announced Wednesday they were grounding Boeing 737 Max in their airspace. Later in the day, President Donald Trump announced the US was doing the same.
Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday his office analyzed new satellite tracking data from the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed Sunday and found “there are similarities,” but not conclusive, to the October Lion Air crash.
The US Federal Aviation Administration, he said at the time, will “have to make their own decision.”
The FAA said Tuesday evening its “review shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft.”
But Trump said Wednesday afternoon the US is grounding the planes.
The FAA’s initial position was supported by the Allied Pilots Association, but not by two major US flight attendant unions, which have called for the planes to be grounded.
On Wednesday morning, prior to the Canadian announcement, a person familiar with the FAA deliberations said all data reviewed by the agency shows “this airplane is performing to its certifications.”
“The big question becomes what happened this time – was it the same thing or was it something different” from the cause of the Lion Air crash, the person said.
The answer to that question is expected to come from the flight data recorder, which investigators have located but yet to interpret.
Regulators in about 20 countries and the European Union have grounded the plane.
This story has been updated based on the latest reporting.
