The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced Thursday it would meet with American commercial airlines that use the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been grounded worldwide since mid-March following two accidents that killed 346 people. The meeting, scheduled to take place on Friday in Washington, comes as Boeing faces intense scrutiny after 157 people died in an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash on March 10 -- the second deadly crash involving the aircraft in five months. American and Southwest use the 737 MAX 8, while United has 737 MAX 9 aircraft in its fleet. The FAA recently formed an action committee with NASA and international civil aviation authorities to help certify the fix to the MCAS anti-stall system Boeing developed specifically for the 737 MAX. The MCAS is believed to have been a key factor in both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people in October.

Source: Ethiopian News April 12, 2019 05:48 UTC