ALL Boeing 737 MAX aircraft have been temporarily banned from flying into and out of Irish airspace, the Irish Aviation Authority has announced this afternoon.

A growing list of countries have prevented the aircrafts from entering their airspace after Flight ET302 crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on Sunday morning, killing all 157 people on board, including Irishman Michael ‘Mick’ Ryan.

There are 13 Boeing 737 Max aircraft on the Irish aircraft register and the IAA said that concerns over the “safety of passengers and flight crew” prompted their decision.

They said in a statement: “The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has decided to temporarily suspend the operation of all variants of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into and out of Irish airspace, in the light of the two fatal accidents involving the aircraft in recent months.

“This decision has been taken based on ensuring the continued safety of passengers and flight crew, which is the IAA’s number one priority. “

The temporary suspension came into affect from 3pm today.

“The IAA’s decision has been made taking account of the unprecedented loss of two Boeing 737 MAX in recent months. 

“The IAA has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any flights on Boeing 737 MAX from any operator arriving, departing or overflying Irish airspace.

“During the temporary suspension, the IAA will continue to work closely with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the manufacturer Boeing,” the IAA spokesperson said.

This comes as Norwegian Air, which flies from Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports to the US, has temporarily suspends flights with the Boeing 737 Max.

“Following the decision by the relevant aviation regulatory bodies to temporarily suspend operations of Boeing 737 MAX, Norwegian will not operate any flights with this aircraft type until further notice. We remain in close dialogue with the aviation authorities and Boeing, and follow their instructions and recommendations.”

Norwegian has 18 of the 737 Max in its fleet, which is mostly made up of 110 Boeing 737–800 aircraft not affected by the suspension.

Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian’s acting chief operating officer said the airline not use its 737 Max until further notice from safety regulators.

“In response to the temporary suspension of Being 737 MAX operations by multiple aviation authorities we have taken the decision to not operate flights using this aircraft type, until advised otherwise by the relevant aviation authorities. We would like to apologize to customers for any inconvenienced caused, however, safety will always remain our top priority.”

During the past two days, the UK, Australia, Ethiopia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Mexico, South Korea, India, Caymen Islands, Brazil have grounded their Boeing 737 Max fleets.

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