A Boeing 737 MAX test took off from China on Wednesday for a flight around Shanghai, the first since the country banned this type of aircraft more than two years ago after two fatal crashes.

The plane, re-authorized to fly in America and Europe since late last year, has yet to obtain a new certification from the China Air Transport Regulator (CAAC) to fly in the country.

This decision is eagerly awaited by the American aircraft manufacturer, which must deliver a hundred aircraft to Chinese companies.

Flight tests

The Boeing 737 MAX took off at 9:24 a.m. from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, according to specialist websites FlightRadar24 and RadarBox.

Registered N7201S, the plane flew "nearly two hours" before landing at Zhoushan, the city's airport said.

Zhoushan is an archipelago located some 140 kilometers from Shanghai as the crow flies.

Asked by AFP, the Chinese air transport regulator (CAAC) did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Shanghai-Pudong Airport has for its part indicated that it has no information on "non-commercial flights".

In recent days, the specialized press had echoed the arrival in Shanghai on Saturday of a Boeing 737 MAX for flight tests.

Flights suspended after two accidents

China was the very first country in the world to order in March 2019 its carriers to suspend the flights of 737 MAX, for safety reasons after two accidents in a few months which killed 346 people.

The day before the ban, an aircraft of this model, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.

The disaster, which left 157 people dead, came just over five months after another 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia, where 189 people were killed.

Re-authorized in the United States

After 20 months of immobilization on the ground, the aircraft had been authorized to fly again in November in the United States.

Then, in most parts of the world, after modifications to the flight control software that caused the two accidents and new pilot training in particular.

China, for its part, maintained its ban and explained that it then had "no timetable" to re-authorize the 737 MAX.

The regulator conditioned the resumption of flights on the conclusions of the investigations into the two disasters which involved these models.

The CAAC also set as prerequisites a "complete and effective" training of pilots, as well as technical modifications on the devices to guarantee flight safety.

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