Ethiopian Airlines crash: Boeing reduces 737 production

Boeing is temporarily cutting production of its best-selling 737 airliner in the continuing fall-out from crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Production will drop from 52 planes a month to 42 from mid-April, Boeing has said in a statement.

The decision is a response to a halt in deliveries of the 737 Max – the model involved in the two accidents.

The plane is currently grounded as preliminary findings suggest its anti-stall system was at fault.

An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed only minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa in March, killing all 157 people on board.

The same type flown by the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed into the sea only five months earlier, shortly after taking off from Jakarta. That accident claimed the lives of 189 people. 

"As we continue to work through these steps, we're adjusting the 737 production system temporarily to accommodate the pause in Max deliveries, allowing us to prioritise additional resources to focus on software certification and returning the Max to flight," he said.

Current employment levels would be maintained, the statement said, and a new committee is being set up to look at "policies and processes for the design and development of the airplanes we build".

What difficulties has Boeing faced?

The 10 March crash of Ethiopian Airlines ET302 led to airlines round the world grounding their 737 Max aircraft.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was one of the last major regulators to order the grounding of the Max, leading some to accuse it of being too close to Boeing.

Questions are being asked about why the planes were not grounded earlier.

Deliveries of the Max were halted, leading to an excess of the planes needing storage.

After the statement, Boeing shares fell just over 1% in after-hours trading to $387.14 (£333).

/bbc