Boeing flight prevented from landing at Birmingham Airport

A flight bound for Birmingham Airport has been caught up in the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) decision to prevent Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft from entering UK airspace.

The aircraft model was the Ethopian Airlines plane which crashed on Sunday, killing 157 people. It was the second fatal crash involving the new type of Boeing aircraft in the last five months.

The CAA took a “precautionary measure” on Tuesday afternoon to stop the aircraft taking off, landing, or flying over the UK.

The Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Birmingham was turned around as it flew over Nuremberg, Germany – one of several in the air destinated for UK airports that were re-routed. The 737  MAX 8 first flew into Birmingham on December 5.

Flightradar24’s tweet showed the Turkish Airlines planes returning to Turkey

A spokesperson for the UK Civil Aviation Authority said: “Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the tragic incident in Ethiopia on Sunday.

“The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace.

“The UK Civil Aviation Authority’s safety directive will be in place until further notice.”

In a statement, Boeing said: “Safety is Boeing’s number one priority and we have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX.

“We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets.

We’ll continue to engage with them to ensure they have the information needed to have confidence in operating their fleets.”