Washington, Mar 13 (UNI) The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday said that there is "no basis" for grounding Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, one of which was involved in a crash in Ethiopia that killed 157 people.
Despite the aviation giant's assurances that the plane is safe and reliable, the European Union, Britain and India joined China and other countries grounding the plane or banning it from their airspace as they await the results of the investigation into the crash.
But the US has so far refused to take similar action against the American aerospace giant's best-selling workhorse aircraft.
"Thus far, our review shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft. Nor have other civil aviation authorities provided data to us that would warrant action," the FAA chief Daniel Elwell said in a statement.
According to the FAA, currently 74 Boeing 737 Max 8 is operated by US carriers, mostly by United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

A 737 MAX 8 plane of Ethiopian Airlines crashed Sunday morning, killing all 157 passengers and crew members on board.

The plane crash was the second fatal incident involving the same model in five months.

Another Boeing 737 MAX 8, flown by Indonesia's Lion Air, crashed soon after takeoff from Jakarta in October last year, killing 189 people.
UNI XC TV 0754