The Ethiopian Airlines crash has driven a wedge between European and US aviation authorities, leading to the “dangerous” fragmentation of the international aviation safety system, according to a senior EU official.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s reluctance to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8 meant that the “golden era” when the US authority was “the beacon” for aviation security had ended, the official added.
Its response had led to a splintering in the global system, the official said, as national authorities separately raced to ground the Max 8, a model which had suffered its second crash in five months, instead of taking a unified global approach.