Facing mounting pressure, President Donald Trump said Wednesday his administration was ordering Boeing 737 Max jets grounded until more information is gathered about the crash of an Ethiopian aircraft.
It was a turnabout from the administration’s earlier position, which deemed the planes safe to fly even as dozens of other nations banned them after they were involved in two fatal disasters.
Trump said the decision to ground the Max 8 and Max 9 was made in light of new information about last week’s crash, which killed 157 people. The Federal Aviation Administration said new evidence had been collected at the sight of the crash on Wednesday, and that information — along with new satellite data — led to the grounding decision.
Until Wednesday afternoon, administration officials had insisted the planes were safe, bucking calls from lawmakers and airline labor unions to suspend flights until an investigation could be completed.
Even as he was announcing his administration’s decision, Trump said the move was more precautionary than mandatory.
“I didn’t want to take any chances. We didn’t have to make this decision today,” he said. “We could have delayed it. We maybe didn’t have to make it at all. But I felt it was important both psychologically and in a lot of other ways.”
Trump said his decision was fact-based, even as he admitted it was made partly with regard for the mental well-being of American travelers.
“The safety of the American people, of all people, is our paramount concern,” Trump told reporters.
Planes in the air when the announcement was made were ordered to land at their destination and remain grounded. Though Trump said airlines and pilots had been notified of the decision, one of the airlines using the plane said it was still working to confirm the order.
“We are currently seeking confirmation and additional guidance from the FAA,” a Southwest Airlines spokesman said.
Speaking with reporters on a conference call, acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell said the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and 9 came in light of new information, including from the flight data recorder and voice recorder.
“Since this accident occurred we were resolute that we would not take action until we had data,” Elwell said. “That data coalesced today.”
He said the new data tied the Ethiopian airline disaster to an earlier crash of the same model plane in Indonesia.
Elwell declined to guess how long the grounding would last but he said he hoped to keep it “as short as possible:”
Trump described the airliner issue as “a terrible, terrible thing” and defended the jet’s manufacturer, which he has maintained close ties to over the course of his presidency.
“Boeing is an incredible company,” he said. “They are working very hard right now.”
He said the company was looking to find answers to the plane issue, but “until they do, the planes are grounded.”