The United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon on Wednesday joined much of the world in grounding Boeing 737 MAX planes or banning them from their airspace after a second deadly crash involving the model in less than five months.
The Emirates' General Civil Aviation administration made an announcement late Tuesday on barring the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 from its airspace.
It cited the similarities between Sunday's crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight and another by Indonesia's Lion Air last year for its decision.
Egypt’s civil aviation ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that Egypt has barred the passage, takeoff and landing of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
It said the civil aviation authority's decision was precautionary. No time-frame was given for how long the jets would be barred.
No Egyptian airlines, including flagship carrier EgyptAir, have Boeing 737 MAX jets in their fleets, the statement said.
Lebanon’s aviation authority also said Wednesday it had banned all such planes from landing in Beirut or flying in Lebanese airspace.
A circular was issued by Mohammad Shehabeddine, director of the Civil Aviation Authority at Rafik Hariri International Airport.
Despite the American aviation giant's assurances that the plane is safe and reliable, the entire European Union, Britain, India, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Oman and other countries grounded the plane or banned it from their airspace as they await the results of an investigation into Sunday’s crash.
The US remains one of the few operators of Boeing's best-selling workhorse aircraft.
A new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.
That followed the October crash of a new Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, which killed 189 people shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.
An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said the "black box" from Sunday’s crashed jet will be sent overseas for analysis.
Asrat Begashaw said the the data and voice records of the flight's last moments will be sent to Europe.
More than 370 737 MAX 8s are in service around the world, with nearly 5,000 on order.
