It's called erring on the side of caution.

Here's some more perspective...

https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-s...n-the-737-max/

The FACT is the FAA ignored the pilots.

Meanwhile, Canada grounded the 737 Max today.

And the Eithopians don't trust America to investigate the crash.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/worl...-737-max-8-to/

This illustrates my point perfectly- the FAA bases its airworthiness classifications on data and facts, not the complaints of a small handful of pilots that did not even fall under formal reports. Further, the two documented instances had nothing to do with MCAS and were autoflight anomalies easily addressed without said flights returning to origin. It's interesting, but not surprising, that all are jumping on "the FAA ignored pilots" while ignoring that the APA (representing over 15,000 pilots) has stated its support of the plane.

As for ETH refusing to send the black boxes to Boeing, more political theater. Who does the airline think the EU will consult with to evaluate the data recorders? Next we'll read that they'll ask Airbus SE to review the data as an impartial party.

"The decision, in defiance of U.S. requests, is the latest sign of the world’s growing distrust of the United States on aviation safety issues." - This is pure reporter click-bait commentary and must be why so many countries continue to order and operate these jets. It's most troubling that investigations are now being influenced by media and emotions in lieu of study.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump has decided to overrule fact and data.
"We're gonna be issuing an emergency order to ground all flights of the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9, and planes associated with that line," Mr. Trump told reporters.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-a...-live-updates/

The guy finally did something right!

Made a knee-jerk emotional decision that was not data-driven?

So now we have 7M8 and 7M9s grounded. For how long? What does anyone (FAA, Boeing) plan on doing during this grounding that will mean we will know more in a week or a month than we do today in order to unground the fleet?

Ok, so we are "investigating" stuff with these aircraft? What is being investigated? We already have a pretty good handle on what happened with Lion Air.

Disagree. Their tweet / release clearly states that this was done in light of new data...


"The agency made this decision as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analyzed today."

This leads me to think something is wrong indeed. Specially if, as you stated, they base themselves on data.

We do? What's the "good handle" on what happened with Lion Air?

Was the decision on 9/11 data driven? Was every single plane either in or likely to enter US airspace hijacked? No data to support that was there?

Faulty angle of attack (AOA) sensor data causing flight control software to trim stabilizer nose down.

You chose just about the poorest comparison possible given how much of what was done in the wake of 9/11 was completely knee-jerk and emotional.

Oh, so has that issue been fixed?

That was my point. Perhaps I misunderstood yours. Could you clarify?