Controversial Boeing MAX 8 aircraft visited Malta eight times

Boeing 737-800 Max airliners, similar to the one that crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday, has so far visited Malta eight times, according to plane spotters.

Sunday's crash was the second in a few months, leading aviation authorities all over the world to ban flights of the aircraft, which first flew in 2016. Malta as part of the EU banned flights of the aircraft in its airspace on Monday.

The last time the MAX 8 was seen at Malta International Airport was on March 7, just four days before the tragedy that left all 157 people on the Ethiopia Airlines flight dead. 

The aircraft belonged to Turkish Airlines. This was the third time the airline had deployed the MAX 8 to Malta, the two other occasions being on October 18, 2018 and last February 28.

The first MAX 8 to visit Malta arrived on May 23, 2018, operating a Smartwings service. The airline operated three other flights to Malta using the MAX 8: on October 23, 2018, the day after and on October 28, 2018.

A Tui Fly Max 8 was here on March 5.

The plane spotters reported online that a Smartwings MAX 8 en route from Cape Verde to Prague was in “holding pattern”, that is circling in the air, off Malta on Tuesday evening until a decision...