The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) on 12 March banned the use of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in its airspace following a deadly Ethiopia plane crash at weekend.

A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site of a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines flight near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 10 March (Source: AFP)

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 went down minutes after takeoff for a flight to Nairobi on March 10, killing all 157 people on board. It was the same type of the jet operated by Lion Air which crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189 passengers and crew.

The CAAS said in a statement it was "temporarily suspending operation of all variants of the Boeing 737 MAX plane into and out of Singapore in light of two fatal accidents involving this type of aircraft in less than five months."

The suspension began taking effect from 2pm of 12 March, it said.

On 11 March, Malaysian Minister of Economic Affairs Azmin Ali said that the country’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah, would reconsider the purchase of 25 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft for its flagship carrier Malaysia Airlines.

At present, Malaysia’s three largest carriers, namely MAS, AirAsia and Malindo, all do not operate any Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

(Source: VNA)