Trump Announces Ban of Boeing 737 Max Flights

Boeing’s 737 Max

UPDATES BELOW

President Trump has just flexed his statist muscle and announced that the United States is grounding Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft following a crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia.


The crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 killed all 157 people on board. In October, a 737 Max 8 operated by Lion Air, an Indonesian carrier, crashed in similar circumstance and 189 people were killed.

US carriers, however, have continued to operate the planes apparently believing them safe.

Of course, the decisions of what planes to fly and when should be made by the carriers, and passengers can either choose to fly in such planes or not.

It is the nature of the statist thinking that permeates the world that few will object to this anti-market order by the president.

-RW

UPDATE

Southwest has 34 Max 8 aircraft (out of a fleet of 717). American Airlines has 24 (out of a fleet of 1,536). United Airlines flies 14 Max 9 aircraft  (out of a fleet of 1322).

UPDATE 2

From the Washingon Post:

Trump added to the confusion Wednesday by suggesting that the decision to ground the plane was “psychologically” important but was neither urgent nor conclusive.

“We didn’t have to make this decision today. We could have delayed it,” he said Wednesday. “We maybe didn’t have to make it at all. But I felt it was important both psychologically and in a lot of other ways.”