China not ready to allow the Boeing 737 Max back in the air

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing isn’t ready to follow the United States in allowing Boeing’s 737 Max back into the air. China was the first country to ground the 737 Max after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed a total of 346 people. U.S. regulators approved the plane’s return to the skies in November after Boeing made technical changes and a new training regime was put into place for pilots. The deputy administrator of China’s aviation agency, Dong Zhiyi, said “major safety concerns” raised by Chinese regulators have not been fully resolved. Dong said design changes must pass approval for airworthiness, pilots must receive effective training and conclusions of crash reports must be clear.