JUST IN: Trump orders all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 jets in U.S. to be grounded

President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will
order the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes
immediately.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said the planes currently
in the air would be ordered to land, and that airlines and pilots
had been notified of the decision.

New information about the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight
302 led his administration to order the immediate grounding of the
aircraft, he said.

US pilots who fly the Boeing 737 Max have registered complaints
about the way the jet has performed in flight, according to a
federal database.

In one of the complaints, a captain reported an autopilot
anomaly which led to a brief nose-down situation — where the front
of the aircraft pointed down, according to the federal database. In
another complaint, a first officer reported that the aircraft
pitched nose down after the autopilot was engaged during departure.
The autopilot was then disconnected and flight continued to its
destination, according to the database.

Although the data doesn’t identify the pilots or their airlines,
two US carriers fly the 737 Max 8: American Airlines and
Southwest.

Extraordinary worldwide attention has been focused on the jet —
Boeing’s biggest-selling airliner — after Sunday’s crash of a new
Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8, minutes after takeoff from Addis
Abba, which killed all 157 people on board. Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 302 was the second deadly crash of the same new plane type
within five months. The crash of Lion Air Flight 610 shortly after
takeoff from Jakarta last October killed all 189 people on
board.

Canada’s Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said Wednesday that
as the result of new data that they received in the morning, the
country will no longer allow the 737 MAX 8 or 9 aircraft to take
off or land in Canada, nor will they allow aircraft to fly over
Canadian airspace.

Egypt, Hong Kong, Lebanon and New Zealand joined dozens of other
countries, on Wednesday, banning all Boeing MAX aircraft from their
airspace as an extra safety precaution. Scores of nations, carriers
and authorities have already temporarily suspended the MAX 8 model
or other models in the range.

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing Max 8 jet plummeted into a field
shortly after leaving Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport on
Sunday morning, killing 157 people. One of the pilots reported
flight control problems and asked to return to the base.

As investigators search for clues into the cause of the
disaster, some aviation experts are drawing parallels to the Lion
Air Boeing MAX 8 plane that went down last October over the Java
Sea in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board.

Canada’s Minister of Transport Garneau said satellite tracking
data that is collected when certain aircraft take off —
specifically the vertical profile of the aircraft— was analyzed by
officials and was the reason they decided to ground the Boeing 737
Max 8 and 9 over Canadian airspace.

While not conclusive, Garneau said their were similarities in
the new data they analyzed and the doomed Lion Air flight that
caused them to feel a threshold had been crossed to halt those
flights.

JAMB Fixes New Date in April for Mock Exam

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation has fixed Monday, 1st
April, 2019 for its 2019 mock examination earlier scheduled for
Saturday, 23rd March,2019. This change is due to certain
circumstances beyond the Board’s control.

Candidates who had indicated interest in the mock examination at
the point of registration and have since printed their mock
examination notification slips need not print another one. All the
details on the slips remain the same except the examination date
which is now 1st April, 2019.

The Board has also scheduled to conduct the 2019 Unified
Tertiary Matriculation examination (UTME) from Thursday, 11th
April, 2019. Candidates are to begin the printing of the 2019 UTME
notification slips from Tuesday,2nd April,2019.

All candidates who registered for the 2019 UTME are to ensure
that they print their examination notification slips before the day
of the examination as no excuses would be entertained.The public
should note that the Board would not reschedule examination for any
candidate.

Candidates can print their slips anywhere.
Nigerians would recall that the Board had closed the sale of its
Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and Direct Entry
application document on Thursday,21st February,2019. At the close
of the sale and subsequently close of registration portal, it was
discovered that 41,063 candidates created profile and procured
either UTME or DE ePINS but were unable to complete their
registration formalities after initiating the process. In view of
this consideration the Board has open the registration portal
effective from Wednesday 13th March, 2019 for all candidates with
either UTME or DE ePINS to complete their registration formalities.
The portal would be closed on Friday, 15th March,2019 by
12midnight.

This opportunity is for only candidates who had created profile
and procured UTME or DE ePINS before the close of registration
portal as the sale of ePINS had since been closed.
Please endeavour to register before Friday midnight if you are
holding any of the ePINS (UTME/DE).

Dr. Fabian Benjamin
Head of Media
JAMB