The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) has placed a temporary restriction on the Boeing 727-8 and 737-9 Max aircraft from entering its airspace.
The JCAA in a statement late Wednesday said the ban that came into effect at midnight will remain in force until further notice.
Director General of Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority Nari Williams Singh told Radio Jamaica that only a small percentage of flights in Jamaica’s airspace involve 737 Max aircraft.
“Well the actual total movement of these type of aircraft are pretty small – a small percentage of our total movement. For instance in the month of February we had a total of around 117 arrival and departures of these aircraft – given the total aggregate of arrival and departures – this is around two percent. In terms of our overflight, it is less than two per cent of our total overflight of these types of aircraft,” said Williams Singh.
The temporary ban follows Sunday’s Ethiopian Airways crash involving a Boeing 737-8 Max plane in which all 157 passengers and crew were killed.
The crash came a month after the Lion Air crash in October involving the same model aircraft.
Meanwhile, Boeing has grounded its entire global fleet of 737 Max aircraft after investigators uncovered new evidence at the scene of the fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The US plane-maker said it would suspend all 371 of the aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said new evidence as well as newly refined satellite data prompted the decision to temporarily ban the jets.
