European aviation regulators joined a growing list of countries and airlines that are grounding Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircrafts, three days after the deadly Ethiopian Airlines disaster which killed all 157 people on board. Regulators in China, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, New Zealand, Lebanon, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia have also barred the plane from flying in their airspace.
The U.S. has so far resisted mounting pressure to do the same. On Tuesday, the chief executive of Boeing reportedly spoke to President Trump and assured him the aircraft was safe. The Wall Street Journal is reporting a fix to the flight control software had been planned but was delayed for five weeks due to the recent government shutdown. We’ll have more on this story after headlines.