A GROWING number of airlines around the world have grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that killed 157 people on Sunday.
A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines says it will ground its remaining four Max 8 jets as an “extra safety precaution” while it investigates Sunday’s deadly crash.
Asrat Begashaw said investigations and the search for bodies and aircraft debris will continue. The airline is awaiting the delivery of 25 more Max 8 jets. While some aviation experts have warned against drawing conclusions until more information on the latest crash emerges, much of the world, including the entire European Union, has grounded the Boeing jetliner or banned it from their airspace.
That leaves the US as one of the few remaining operators of the plane.
Meanwhile, the black box from the plane will be sent overseas for analysis, an Ethiopian Airlines spokesman has said.
The airline said the data and voice records of the flight’s last moments will be analysed by experts in Europe.
“What we can say is we don’t have the capability to probe it here in Ethiopia,” the spokesman said.
An airline official has said one recorder was partially damaged.
A STORM has hit the west of the US, causing travel disruption.
Blizzard conditions were expected to engulf parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.
About 1000 flights into Denver have been cancelled.
Schools were closed in many places, where more than a foot of snow and winds as high as 80mph were possible.
State and local government workers in Denver and Wyoming were told to stay at home and many colleges also closed for the day.
Parts of some major roads were closed in Wyoming because of heavy snow and whiteout conditions.
Heavy snow was also falling in northern Arizona and forecasters said dangerous winds in New Mexico were expected to make travel hazardous across much of the state.
HOODED teenagers have opened fire at a school in southern Brazil, killing six people before taking their own lives, according to local authorities.
The shooting happened in a public school in Suzano, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city.
The state government of Sao Paulo said two youths armed with guns and wearing hoods entered the school and began shooting at students and then killed themselves.
Authorities said five students and an administrator at the school were killed. School shootings are rare in the country.
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