Hong Kong has announced that all Boeing B737 MAX aircraft will be banned from the territory’s airspace following a deadly crash involving the plane in Ethiopia.
The Civil Aviation Department said the plane will be temporarily prohibited from entering Hong Kong airspace from 6pm on Wednesday until further notice.
“The temporary prohibition is solely a precautionary measure to ensure aviation safety and protect the public,” a spokesperson said.
The move comes after two crashes involving the Boeing model in less than five months. All 149 passengers and eight crew members were killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday.
Last October, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed, killing all 189 passengers and crew after taking off from Jakarta.
Previously, India’s SpiceJet and Globus Airlines of Russia had been using the B7B7 MAX aircraft on services in and out of Hong Kong. The government said that both airlines will cooperate with the ban.
The Federation Aviation Administration in the US has maintained that the plane is airworthy, as the two crash investigations continue. Meanwhile, shares in Boeing continued to fall on Wednesday, with US$25 billion wiped off its market value.
