FOX 13: Congressman Steve Cohen calling on FAA to ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Congressman Steve Cohen is now calling on the FAA to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes after recent safety concerns.

Twenty airlines have taken the MAX 8 planes out of service in the last two days following the deadly

crash shortly after takeoff in Ethiopia.

About 350 are in operation which equates to about 8,500 flights a week around the world.

The jet came on the market in 2017. Each one costs about $121 million. Their engines are 40 percent quieter and 14 percent more fuel efficient than previous models.

Cohen made a statement Tuesday that read, in part:

"The FAA continues to drag its feet"

"This is unacceptable"

"The FAA needs to ground these planes… until all safety questions are resolved"

Several international airlines currently use these planes, but as for the U.S., only American Airlines and Southwest Airlines use the 737 MAX 8's.

According to USA Today, American has 24 of the planes and Southwest has 34 – and neither have plans to ground them.

An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after take-off Sunday night, killing all 157 people on board.

World leaders took to Twitter this week, as the death toll reached 35 different counties – including eight Americans.

FOX13 talked to a spokesperson at the Memphis International Airport.

She said based on their data, a MAX 8 may stop by a few times every year, but not with any regularity.

That spokesperson told FOX13 passengers can find out what type of plane their flight is scheduled for on flightaware.com.

The U.S. and Canada are the only nations with a substantial number of these jets in the air.

Since the crash in Ethiopia, the FAA ordered all pilots know how to bring MAX 8's out of a sudden nose dive. However, the FAA said the plane is "airworthy."