Kuwait’s Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) has announced the suspension of operation of all Boeing 737 Max-8 planes, making it the latest Gulf nation to take action after the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The Kuwait News Agency cited a statement as saying that all Boeing 737 Max-8 flights, including transit flights, were suspended until further notice.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UAE and Oman took similar measures, joining the European Union, Britain and India joined China and other countries grounding the plane or banning it from their airspace as they await the results of the investigation into the crash.
But the United States has said there is “no basis” to ground Boeing 737 Max airliners, despite a second deadly crash involving the model in less than five months.
A new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
That followed the October crash of a new Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesia, which killed 189 people shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.
The widening action against the aircraft has put pressure on Boeing to prove the 737 Max is safe, and the company has said it is rolling out flight software updates by April that could address issues with a faulty sensor.
Global air travel hub Singapore, as well as Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand and Hong Kong have joined the ban.
Boeing has described the Max series as its fastest-selling family of planes, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers.
