Commercial flights using Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft resumed last week, nearly two years after the global grounding of the planes following two deadly crashes which killed 346 people.
According to various media reports, Gol Airlines, which operates out of Brazil, became the first company to reactivate the Max 8 planes when it was used on a domestic flight from Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre on Wednesday, 9 Dec.
Gol Airline’s flight comes less than a month after the US Federal Aviation Administration issued an order that paved the way for the planes to return to the skies.
In November, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, in a video statement, said the path to giving the planes the all-clear was a long and gruelling one.
“But we said from the start that we would take the time necessary to get this right. We were never driven by a timeline, but rather followed a methodical and deliberate safety process, a process that ultimately took 20 months to complete,” he said.
The FAA has since issued an Air Directive, which rescinded the previous order that grounded the Max 8 aircraft. However, before airlines can resume using the planes they must first ensure that the aircraft have received the necessary hardware and software upgrades. In addition, pilots must now complete an unspecified number of hours worth of training, before they can be certified to fly the planes.
Cayman Airways has purchased four Boeing Max 8 aircraft. The first plane, which arrived in December 2017, was grounded along with a second plane, which was handed over in March last year. Neither plane has been in service as part of the CAL fleer since the grounding, except for maintenance flights. A third Max 8 has been built and remains in storage in the US, and a fourth is still to be built.
The Compass reached out to Cayman Airways seeking comment on the reinstatement of the Max 8 planes, but a reply had not been received by press time.
In a previous statement, a CAL spokesperson said the airline would look to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands to make the final decision on clearing the 737-8 Max aircraft locally.
Related Videos
