Ethiopian Airlines crash: Boeing says it has full confidence in safety of 737 MAX as more countries ground aircraft model

As more countries grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the United States-based aircraft manufacturer said that safety is the company's number one priority and it has full confidence in the security of the flight model.

"We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets. We’ll continue to engage with them to ensure they have the information needed to have confidence in operating their fleets," Boeing said.

Boeing further stated that the US Federal Aviation Administration is not mandating any further action at this time, and based on the information currently available, it does not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators.

Much of the world, including the Asian and Middle Eastern countries besides the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing 737 MAX or banned it from their airspace, leaving the US as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in five months.

Greece's civil aviation agency on Wednesday said it had closed its airspace to Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

"All airports have been ordered to ban flights of the specific model in Greek airspace as of yesterday afternoon," civil aviation agency head Constantinos Lintzerakos told state news agency ANA.

A file photo of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Reuters

Lebanon's civil aviation authority said on Wednesday that it has banned Boeing 737 MAX passenger jets from the country's airspace.

The Lebanese authority barred the aircraft from taking off and landing in Lebanon, according to a statement carried by the official National News Agency.

Serbia also barred Boeing 737 MAX planes from the country's airspace, a spokesperson told AFP Wednesday, joining a wave of government bans worldwide after a second deadly crash involving the model.

The US Federal Aviation Administration is facing mounting criticism for backing the airworthiness of Boeing's 737 MAX jets as the number of countries that have grounded the aircraft grows in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash over the weekend.

The rest of the world typically takes its cues from the FAA, long considered the world's gold standard for aircraft safety. Yet other aviation safety regulators, including the European Union, China, Australia and the United Kingdom, have decided not to wait for the FAA to act. The Ethiopian disaster came just five months after the deadly crash of another new Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Lion Air in Indonesia.

— With inputs from agencies