737 Max planes

Fiji welcomes return of 737 Max planes to the skies

The Civil Aviation Authority says it has adopted service requirements of the US regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Boeing 737 Max aircraft operated by Fiji Airways.

The Fiji authority said the FAA had signed an order in November that allowed the 737 Max to return to the skies.

Earlier the Max was pulled from service after two planes crashed in Indonesia in 2019 and Ethiopia in 2018, killing all 346 people on board.

Boeing admits knowing of 737 Max problem

The firm said it had inadvertently made an alarm feature optional instead of standard, but insisted that this did not jeopardise flight safety.

All 737 Max planes were grounded in March after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed, killing 157 people.

Five months earlier, 189 people were killed in a Lion Air crash.

The worldwide fleet of 737 Max planes totalled 387 aircraft at the time of the grounding.