Why are there 40 737 Max planes in flight when they have been grounded as not airworthy?
Most of them are probably on a ferry flight. The EASA directive allows 1 transfer with up to 3 flight legs without passengers.

Some of them are travelling between countries where they are not grounded.

When a commercial plane crashes, the airline is liable, unless it can prove that the manufacturer is at fault.



I revisited the FlightAware search for B737M today (March 15th), because I was curious how the picture has changed. Same time of the day, just 1 day later:



There is now much less B737M traffic in the US, none in EU, slightly less in Asia, and increased traffic in Africa. That would be coherent with what I answered yesterday, but I was also curious about @Ben's claim that the FlightAware data is not correct. Now this is what I found:



The search in FlightAware identified 26 flights as B38M. Cross checking with FlightRadar24 delivered:


1x 737 MAX 8
18x 737 other than MAX
1x 787-9 Dreamliner
6x not found


The only 737 MAX was - according to FlightRadar24 - AAL9663 from Miami to Phoenix.

I am not sure what exactly FlightAware is showing. My guess is that they are showing the types that are planned to execute the flight.