A Boeing Co 737 MAX test plane took to the skies in China on Wednesday August 11, 2021, as the U.S. manufacturer looks to end a nearly two-and-a-half-year regulatory grounding of the model in the key travel market.
Watch | The return of the Boeing 737 MAX
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed a 737 MAX 7 test plane taking off from Shanghai's Pudong International Airport at 9:24 a.m. (0124 GMT), with no destination listed. It was flying in a south-easterly direction.
Read: The Hindu Explains | Boeing: crashed and grounded
The 737 MAX test plane left Seattle last week and arrived in Shanghai on Aug. 7 after refuelling stops in Honolulu and Guam. Reuters reported last week it was due for its first test flight in China on Aug. 11 if all went well.
Boeing did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
About 30 airlines and 175 countries have allowed the 737 MAX to return to service following a nearly two-year safety ban after crashes five months apart killed 346 people, plunging Boeing into a financial crisis since compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
Boeing's 737 MAX remains grounded in China, where tradetensions between Washington and Beijing have cut off sales foryears, though Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said last month hestill expected the 737 MAX to win approval before year-end.
China's aviation regulator previously issued threerequirements for the 737 MAX's return to service: certified design changes, sufficient pilot training, and definitive findings from the crash investigations.
Before the 737 MAX was grounded in March 2019, Boeing was selling one quarter of the planes it built annually to Chinese buyers. For years, simmering tensions between Washington and Beijing have caused uncertainty.
