All outbound Turkish Airlines flights using the model of plane that crashed in Ethiopia returned to Istanbul
Two flights travelling to England from Istanbul on Tuesday were forced to turn back after the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane was banned from entering UK airspace.
The Max 8 model has been involved in two crashes in the last five months, most recently in Ethiopia where 157 people died when a flight to Nairobi crashed shortly after take off. In October, a crash in Indonesia killed 189 people on a Lions Air flight.
That prompted the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority to join China, Australia and Singapore among the nations to suspend the planes from flying into, taking off from or even crossing over their airspace.
Subsequently, the Turkish Airlines flight TK1969 from Istanbul to Birmingham and TK1997 to London Gatwick were both told to turn around as they approached the British Isles. The Gatwick bound flight performed a U-turn over the Czech Republic whereas the other was over central Germany.
A decision to send all Turkish Airline flights back to Istanbul appears to have been made on Tuesday with flight TK595 to Nouakchott, Mauritania, turned around while over Sicily.
Two TUI Airways flights using Max 8 planes to Manchester, BY485 from Marrakesh and BY2235 frm Alicante, were allowed to land.
Investigations continue into the two Max 8 crashes with authorities recovering the black boxes from the scene outside Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa on Monday. Similarly, the inquest into the Lions Air crash is also ongoing.
