New York (AFP)
The American Airlines airline announced Tuesday that it postponed to June 4 the date of a possible return to service of its Boeing 737 MAX, nailed to the ground for 10 months, thus following in the footsteps of its competitor United Airlines.
The company, which said in a statement to be "in continuous contact" with the United States Aviation Agency (FAA), the Department of Transport and Boeing, said it made its decision "in light of the latest indications".
The 737 MAX has been banned from flying worldwide since March 13 following two accidents that killed 346 people.
American Airlines has already postponed several times the date on which it thought it could reintegrate the aircraft into its flight program, and hoped the latest news could reuse the 737 MAX of its fleet from April.
But Boeing is still working on the fix for the MCAS anti-stall system, implicated in the two accidents, and the FAA, which passed the MAX under the microscope, also detected a problem on the flight systems management microprocessor as well as '' a fault in the electrical wiring.
The agency has yet to set the date for a test flight, which is decisive for its green light.
Boeing also recently decided to recommend that pilots flying on the 737 MAX be trained on a simulator, and no longer just on a computer, a longer option.
Passengers who were to fly on the 737 MAX will be transferred to other flights or may be fully reimbursed, said American Airlines.
The company also indicates that it will specify "in the coming weeks" the procedures to follow for people who do not wish to travel on this device once it is returned to service.
The United Airlines company had already announced at the end of December that it would cancel all the flights planned on 737 MAX until June. Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, plans to resume in April.
© 2020 AFP