Aviation authority closes Polish airspace to Boeing 737 MAX 8s
I have decided to close Polish airspace to Boeing 737 MAX 8 aeroplanes, Civil Aviation Authority (ULC) President Piotr Samson told PAP in Madrid. He expects that within hours the whole of European airspace will be closed to the aircraft.
Samson said he had sent his decision to the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA), which manages Polish airspace.
"It means that after receiving the decision from the ULC, PANSA will close our airspace to those aeroplanes," Samson explained. "Similar actions have been carried out in Germany, France and Great Britain. We expect that in the course of a few hours the whole of the airspace above Europe will be closed to that type of aircraft."
The ULC president added that the decision had been taken on the basis of consultations with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Eurocontrol.
In a related development, Polish flag carrier PLL LOT decided to temporarily ground its Boeing 737 MAX 8s, LOT spokesman Adrian Kubicki told a Tuesday press conference.
"In connection with the information appearing, the decisions of further aviation agencies worldwide and in Europe, LOT has taken the decision to temporarily suspend flights conducted with its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, until further notice," Kubicki stated.
The LOT spokesman elaborated that flights planned with that model of plane would be conducted by different aircraft.
"Some inconvenience can be expected when it comes to connections," Kubicki continued. "Today LOT has cancelled two flights - to Brussels and Amsterdam. From tomorrow there will be planes that will replace the 'MAXs' so they will be sufficient to service our connections," he explained.
The decision by various countries to close their airspace to the planes is in response to an Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday involving the aircraft, a second deadly crash of this new Boeing model in the last several months.
In a later development, the EASA decided on Tuesday evening to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8s and MAX 9s within the European Union. In addition, the agency decided to suspend all commercial flights using those planes by third country operators to and within the EU. (PAP)
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