DENVER – Britain, France, and Germany joined a rapidly growing number of countries grounding a new Boeing plane involved in the Ethiopian Airlines disaster or are turning it back from their airspace.
Investigators in Ethiopia are looking for anything linking the most recent deadly crash on Sunday to a similar crash just five months ago.
The United States felt the mounting pressure to take action over the Boeing 737 Max 8 as Asian, Middle Eastern and then European nations and carriers gave in to concerns, grounding the planes.
A Denver resident was among the 157 passengers on the Ethiopian airline when it crashed, killing everyone on board.
46-year-old Darcy Belanger was a Canadian construction executive and environmental activist who had been living in Denver for two years.
A statement from Edmonton-based PCL Construction says Belanger was on a personal trip when the plane crashed Sunday shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, en route to Nairobi, Kenya.
The organization posted a video of Belanger saying he was traveling to Nairobi for a United Nations event, where he planned to meet with government officials.
Ethiopian Airlines has issued no new updates on the crash as 35 countries that lost citizens wait for answers. Some insights into the disaster and its cause could take months, aviation experts said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
