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Jakarta, March 22 (IANS) Garuda Indonesia, the country's flag carrier, announced on Friday that it's cancelling an order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger jets after two planes of the same model crashed in a span of five months.
"Our passengers have lost confidence to fly with the Max 8," Garuda spokesperson Ikhsan Rosan told CNN.
The Indonesian carrier had ordered 50 of the planes and has already received one of them, according to Rosan.
It has sent a letter to Boeing saying that it no longer wants to receive the remaining jets on order, he said.
It's the latest blow to Boeing over the 737 Max, its bestselling passenger jet.
The planes have been grounded worldwide over safety concerns following the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed 189 people onboard and also a second crash that took place last October involving a Lion Air flight that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 157 persons.
Boeing representatives are planning to visit Jakarta on March 28 to discuss the request with the airline, Rosan told CNN.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on "customer discussions".
The two incidents have also led to the US Department of Transportation to ask for an audit of the Federal Aviation Administration's approval of Boeing's 737 Max 8 planes, while the FBI has reportedly joined in a criminal investigation of the certification process for the jets.
--IANS
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