Following the tragic accident of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 involving a Boeing 737 MAX 8, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is taking every step necessary to ensure the safety of passengers.

As a precautionary measure, EASA has published today an Airworthiness Directive, effective as of 19:00 UTC, suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX aeroplanes in Europe. In addition EASA has published a Safety Directive, effective as of 19:00 UTC, suspending all commercial flights performed by third-country operators into, within or out of the EU of the above mentioned models.

The accident investigation is led by the Ethiopian Authorities with the support of the National Transportation Safety Board, as the aircraft was designed and built in the United States. EASA has offered their assistance in supporting the accident investigation.

EASA is continuously analysing the data as it becomes available. The accident investigation is currently ongoing, and it is too early to draw any conclusions as to the cause of the accident.

Britain on Tuesday joined a growing number of nations to suspend flights by Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over their territory, after an Ethiopia Airlines plane of that model crashed on Sunday killing 157 people.

“The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace,” a spokesperson said in a statement about Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority’s safety directive will be in place until further notice.

Following the decision by the relevant aviation regulatory bodies to temporarily suspend operations of Boeing 737 MAX, Norwegian will not operate any flights with this aircraft type until further notice.

Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian’s acting Chief Operating Officer said: “In response to the temporary suspension of Being 737 MAX operations by multiple aviation authorities we have taken the decision to not operate flights using this aircraft type until advised otherwise by the relevant aviation authorities. We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused, however, safety will always remain our top priority.

In recent days, China, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia grounded every 737 MAX 8 planes in these countries.

The airlines of China and Indonesia are among the biggest users of the new Boeing jets, having taken delivery of most of the planes they have ordered so far.

Boeing, in a very unusual procedure, issued an emergency bulletin ordering airlines to train pilots on how to shut off the automatic system. In today’s news release, it said that it’s always been possible to override it. “The pilot will always be able to override the flight control law using electric trim or manual trim,” it said. “In addition, it can be controlled through the use of the existing runaway stabilizer procedure as reinforced in the Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB) issued on Nov. 6, 2018.”

Boeing is developing an update for its 737 MAX flight control software after two deadly crashes in the new aircraft within the last six months killed more than 300 people.

Boeing insists that the 737 MAX is safe, but said this software update is “designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.”

The update will be deployed across 737 MAX fleets “in the coming weeks,” according to Boeing’s announcement, and the FAA is expected to make it mandatory through an airworthiness directive no later than April.