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Grounded 737 Max could take first step toward being cleared to fly this week

03 December 2020 10:29 (UTC +04:00)

Canadian families who lost loved ones on a Boeing 737 Max in 2019 say Transport Canada told them that, as early as Thursday, it could take the first step toward potentially clearing the aircraft to fly again, APA reports citing YahooNews.

The aircraft has been grounded for 20 months in the wake of two deadly crashes. In March 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines flight plunged from the air southeast of the capital Addis Ababa minutes after takeoff, killing everyone onboard — including 18 Canadians and a family of permanent residents to Canada.

Five months earlier, another 737 Max owned by Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 189 passengers.

Chris Moore's 24-year-old daughter Danielle died in the Ethiopian crash. He took part in a video call this afternoon with roughly 10 other victims' families, Transport Minister Marc Garneau and several officials from Transport Canada. Moore said they were told the planes would be cleared to fly again soon.

"They were very confident they would be un-grounding it," Moore told CBC News.

He said the tragedy has "grounded" victims' families.

"For the whole world to crash like this, you can never get back up and running again …You wake up in the middle of the night sweating with your heart racing and pumping with nightmares."

Moore said that three people on the call — Nicholas Robinson, director general of civil aviation at Transport Canada, Dave Turnbull, the department official in charge of aircraft certification, and a test pilot — assured the families that the department's review process for the aircraft was thorough.