Not only you guys but everyone on the Naijauto.com team as well are being sceptical now about the type of aircraft booked for one’s flight. No one wants to fly in a Boeing 737 Max 8 as of now due to its recent attached risk threats.
After the recent crashes experienced by the Ethiopian Airlines which took over 157 lives, the reliability of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is now being questioned all over the world. It even gets worse because just 4 months earlier, a certain Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft also crashed and the actual causes of these accidents are being unofficially traced to problems with the aircraft itself.
Safety concerns have been shown around the globe on seeing 2 crashes involving the same model of aircraft (Boeing 737 Max 8) within an interval of just four months. Many nations like Australia, United States, Singapore, China, and the likes have now temporarily banned all flight operations involving this particular aircraft model in their respective aerospace.
US and some giant nations have temporarily banned Boeing 737 Max 8 in their various aerospace
But to be on the safer side, we have realized that it will really help if we put up a short guide in detecting which aircraft has been booked for you guys travelling by air so that you can totally avoid flying in this questionable Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft for the time being.
Below we have listed out and explained 5 simple ways to check if your flight is booked on a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft or not;
1. Call your airline company’s customer care/helpline
This is the simplest option to avoid flying on a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.
Just put a call through to the flight company’s customer care/helpline and confirm from any of their agents if they operate a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft model in their collection. They will either tell you outrightly that they do not operate that model in their collection or they inform you of the already placed ban which prevents them from even booking a flight or flying the Boeing 737 Max 8 in that nation’s aerospace.
2. Utilize searching engines like Google
Yes, before you even book any flight, you can easily check for the aircraft type that your desired airline normally operates on that particular route which you intend to fly to. This is very easy to do than you might think.
For instance, you want to fly from Lagos to Amsterdam using KLM airline, all you need to do is just visit google, and type in the words “KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam” and the result you should get is the flight number for that particular flight if there is any. See the Image below for an illustration of this process;
Google result page for the searched keyword “KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam”
Did you see the flight number “KL 588” boldly revealed and displayed in the google result?
Once you are able to see the flight number then, what you should do next is again use the google search box by typing in the flight number in order to know which type of aircraft is normally used for that flight number.
A Google search for the flight number should help you get to the flight’s details page like this
Please note that: an airline company can change the aircraft type at any time they like without public notice. So, this method is just to give you an idea and most times its usually the same aircraft type that the flight companies stick to.
3. Check it in your flight booking document
As soon as the airline company confirms your flight booking, you will normally get a certain email pdf or printout document that contains the details of your booked flight. In most cases, the aircraft type is usually specified within this document at a particular session as part of your flight details. Just check the document to see if there is any part that reads “airline/aircraft” like in the image below;
Check your flight booking confirmation document to see if the aircraft type is specified
4. Use global flight details checking websites
If you have tried all the above and still can’t find the aircraft type with those methods then, we suggest that you use a global flight detail checking a website like www.checkmytrip.com or you download their mobile App for your App store.
5. The model inscription on the plane itself
We recommend you try all of the above methods but even after you have done all that and even picked up all of those duty-free products in the airport, remember to still take a close look at the actual aircraft you are to board at the boarding gate. Most airline companies normally have the aircraft type inscribed boldly on each plane although some may not or it might have been covered with some advert paintings. See an example below of such inscription;
An example of aircraft type being inscribed boldly on an Airbus A350 aircraft
And if you are an aircraft expert or enthusiast, you may be able to even tell an aircraft type with just a glance.
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