'HK Was Right Not To Rush Into Boeing Plane Ban'

An aviation expert says the authorities' move on Wednesday to ban Boeing 737 Max planes from Hong Kong airspace was the right call, dismissing criticism that the move should have been ordered sooner.

The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) had earlier said it was adopting a "wait-and-see approach" after a plane of that model crashed near the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Sunday killing 157 people, including a Hong Kong man.

Warren Chim, a spokesman for the aircraft division of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineering, said on Thursday that the CAD's action was in accordance with the standards set out in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Framework.

Chim also said he doesn’t think the CAD acted too slowly.

“According to the ICAO framework, the local authority usually would follow the state of design authority decision,” he said.

“In this case, the FAA, or Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, is the authority of the state of design of this aircraft, so it’s appropriate to wait for the decision from the state of design authority to determine the status of the aircraft,” he said.

But Chim told RTHK’s Kelvin Ng that the FAA's decisions are not the sole criteria and there are other considerations for aviation officials.

The Hong Kong authorities had announced the 737 Max ban hours before the FAA made a similar move.