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Trump grounds all Boeing 737 Max planes after Ethiopia crash

caption: A Boeing 737 Max 8 airliner lands at Boeing Field to complete its first flight on Jan. 29, 2016, in Seattle. The Boeing 737 Max is the fastest-selling plane in the company's history.
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A Boeing 737 Max 8 airliner lands at Boeing Field to complete its first flight on Jan. 29, 2016, in Seattle. The Boeing 737 Max is the fastest-selling plane in the company's history.
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But Boeing says it made the recommendation "out of an abundance of caution."

The president has called for the grounding of all new Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircrafts following the Ethiopian Air crash, which killed all 157 people on board.

"We are going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 Max 8 and the 737 Max 9 and planes associated with that line," President Trump said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Any Max plane currently in the air will be grounded upon landing, Trump said. He added that he had spoken to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was in agreement with the decision.

Boeing, however, said in a statement that the company made this recommendation on its own after consulting with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and aviation authorities around the world.

The company also said it "continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 MAX."

The grounding of the flights comes after two fatal crashes of 737 Max planes in five months — the first was the Indonesian Lion Air crash that killed all 189 people on board. The second was the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, which killed all 157 people aboard.

Boeing's stock price dropped 11 percent on Monday morning, but recovered to a drop of 5 percent by the end of the day.

Sea-Tac International Airport does not have any 737 Max on the ground currently, according to spokesman Perry Cooper, and none are scheduled to arrive.

"The only airline that flies them to Sea-Tac is Southwest and that’s maybe three per day," Cooper said by email. "In context, we have 1,200-1,300 flights per day."

Canada, the entire European Union, and India grounded their 737 Max jets.

“Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be," the statement said. "There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.”

This is a developing story.

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