'I will never hesitate' to fly in 737 MAX, says billionaire Warren Buffett

One of the world’s most influential businessmen and billionaire Warren Buffett on Saturday said that he would not hesitate to fly in a Boeing 737 Max airplane, despite the grounding of the planes after two fatal crashes. “I will never hesitate even for a second to fly on a 737 MAX,” he said in response to a question from news agency AFP on the side lines of the annual shareholder meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway empire in Omaha. Buffett, the world’s third-richest man, owns stakes in companies—from Coca-Cola to JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs to Apple and, recently, Amazon—but he holds no shares in Boeing.

Boeing’s entire 737 MAX fleet has been grounded since shortly after the latest crash in March, while investigators study the incidents and engineers work on solutions.

On Saturday, a Boeing 737 went into the St. John’s River near Jacksonville, Florida in US with 136 on board after landing on Friday, a spokesman for Naval Air Station Jacksonville said, reported news agency Reuters. No fatalities were however reported. The flight arriving from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba went into the river at the end of the runway at about 9:40 p.m. local time, the air station said. The mayor of Jacksonville tweeted that everyone on board the flight was “alive and accounted for” but that crews were working to control jet fuel on the water.

"The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for," the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said on Twitter. The sheriff's tweet was accompanied by two photographs showing the plane bearing the logo of Miami Air International resting in shallow water and fully intact.