Ethiopian Airlines resumes flights with Boeing 737-Max

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopian Airlines says it has resumed flights with the Boeing 737-Max nearly three years after a crash of one of the aircraft outside the country's capital killed 157 people.

The airline said in a statement Tuesday that passengers on the day's flight included government officials and diplomats.

The airline's CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said in a statement that “in line with our initially stated commitment to become among the last airlines to return the B737-Max, we have taken enough time to monitor the design modification work and the more than 20 months of rigorous recertification process and we have ensured that our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians and cabin crew are confident on the safety of the fleet.”

The 737-Max has accumulated more than 349,000 commercial flights since the resumption of its operations a year ago.

Ethiopian Airlines has four of the aircraft in its fleet and 25 on order.

Boeing accepted responsibility for Ethiopian Airways flight 302 losing control shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. The plane nose-dived into a barren patch of land about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Addis Ababa. There were no survivors.

At the time, it was the second crash to involve a 737-Max aircraft in six months. After the Ethiopian crash, U.S. authorities grounded the 737-Max until Boeing could fix the plane’s faulty software.