Bengaluru: Boeing Co staggered into a deepening global crisis as governments around the world grounded the company’s best-selling jet over safety concerns after a second deadly crash.
The shares posted the biggest two-day drop in almost a decade as the European Union and India suspended 737 Max flights while investigators probe why an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft plunged to the ground near Addis Ababa. The March 10 crash, in which 157 people died, occurred less than five months after a Lion Air 737 Max 8 plunged into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia.
The global rush to halt flights is leaving Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration isolated a day after they expressed confidence in the jetliner’s airworthiness. Jurisdictions, including China, Australia and Singapore, had already grounded the Max, as had airlines from Latin America to Africa and West Asia. But the spread of the ban to Europe deals another big blow to Boeing as it grapples with the aftermath of the African tragedy.
