schema:articleBody
| - Canada has allowed at least 162 flights of Boeing 737 MAX jetliners since grounding the fleet last year, public broadcaster CBC said Monday. The flight ban in March 2019 followed two crashes of the MAX within five months in Indonesia and Ethiopia involving flight control problems, killing 346 people. But flight tracking data obtained by CBC showed Air Canada, Westjet and Sunwing continued to fly their MAX planes across North America, sometimes several times per week. Transport Canada told AFP no passengers were onboard the flights, which were permitted only for maintenance, storage or pilot training under "very strict conditions." Air Canada, for example, flew two dozen planes to a facility in the Arizona desert, for storage. It also used "ferry flights" to keep pilot certifications current. Families of the 18 Canadian victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash were aghast. "It feels like a slap in the face," Chris Moore, who lost his 24-year-old daughter in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, told CBC. "Your loved one has died due to that plane and they're still gearing up for the day when it's ungrounded." amc/jm
|