Australia and Singapore banned all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes from their airspaces on Tuesday, two days after 157 people were killed on such a plane during a flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya.
 Several airlines grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes on Monday and Tuesday, increasing to 25 the number of companies that have taken the aircraft out of service. The Max 8, a new fuel-efficient version of Boeing’s most popular aircraft, has crashed twice in five months, leading to concerns about its safety.
Boeing stands by the airworthiness of the plane but said that it planned to issue a software update and was working on changes to its flight controls and training guidelines.
Investigators from the United States and elsewhere have arrived at the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash site. Much of the investigation will focus on the so-called black boxes voice and data recorders that were recovered on Monday.Singapore and Australia ban 737 Max 8s from their airspace.
As the list of airlines taking their 737 Max 8 aircraft out of service continued to grow, Australia and Singapore joined China and Indonesia in suspending all use of the plane.
Singapore’s decision on Tuesday will affect Silk Air, a Singapore-based airline with six of the planes, and four other airlines that operate the aircraft in the country.
After Silk Air grounded its planes, Fiji Airways was the only carrier still operating the aircraft in Australia. Fiji Airways said on Tuesday before Australia’s announcement that it intended to continue flying its two planes and had “full confidence†in their safety, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Also on Tuesday, Eastar Jet of South Korea grounded its two Max 8 jets.
In the days since the crash, many airlines have opted to ground the planes out of caution. Four additional airlines Aeroméxico, AerolÃneas Argentinas, Gol of Brazil, MIAT Mongolian Airlines and Royal Air Maroc of Morocco took the planes out of service on Monday, bringing the worldwide total to 25.
Credit:New York Times