OTTAWA — Transport Canada has announced that it will allow the return of Boeing Max aircraft to service in Canadian airspace on Jan. 20, concluding the government's review process.
The planes will be permitted to fly as long as they meet conditions specified by Transport Canada in December, including allowing pilots to disable a faulty warning system that was found to be central to the crashes in 2018 and 2019.
Federal minister of transport Omar Alghabra said in a news release Monday that Canadians and the airline industry should have confidence that Transport Canada addressed all safety issues before allowing the aircraft to return to Canadian airspace.
The changes that the Canadian government is requiring go beyond those announced by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in November, which required Boeing to make changes to the computer systems inside the plane and pilots to undergo training in flight simulators.
The planes have been grounded since March 2019 following the crashes of a Lion Air flight near Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, 2019, killing a total of 346 people.
Investigators determined that the cause of both crashes was a faulty computer system that pushed the plane’s nose downward in flight.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2020.
The Canadian Press
