"A Southwest Boeing 737 Max 8 took off from Orlando International Airport at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday. Airport officials said that it experienced a malfunction and had to return to Orlando for an emergency landing."
What part of "grounded" did they not understand?
Grounded for commercial use perhaps.
Southwest could of wanted their fleet at various centralized locations to initiate software updates/engineering refinements.
American pilots are well aware of how to operate against the software glitches. Engine issues seem mechanical, which hasn’t been a primary issue before with the Max 8.
The FAA can grant a waiver to relocate the planes.
A relative worked in the aviation industry. It is a common practice to fly planes around with just skeleton crew when they have to be serviced. In this case, It sounds like they were trying to get all the 737 Max 8s to one location where they can be stored and eventually serviced, instead of trying to fund places to store these at a major airport they will move them to a facility designed to store/service them not flay pax.