Jeff Brody's wife had been nervous about being on the same model of jet as the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed days earlier. They had looked into switching flights, but the options were too expensive for the family of five, the actor said.
Soon after landing in Houston, Brody learned the Federal Aviation Administration had grounded all Boeing Max 8 and 9 planes because of similarities between Sunday's crash in Ethiopia and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia.
Boeing said "safety is a core value" and supported the FAA and the Trump administration's decision.
"We strongly considered changing flights before leaving because my wife was very concerned, but decided to continue with our plans because we had a time constraint and didn't think there was enough evidence of an issue with this aircraft," Brody told CNN via Twitter.
Brody traveled from Boston to Houston on Southwest Flight 1117 with his wife, teenage son and 7-year-old twins. Flight 1117 was a Boeing Max 8, according to FlightAware.
Brody and his wife heard about the groundings when they saw it on TV after landing at William P. Hobby Airport.
He saw a safety pamphlet for the 737 Max 8 in his seat pocket, so he knew he was on the plane. He said he wasn't too worried, though, and the flight was normal.
"It was almost full, but there were 40 empty seats," Brody said. "There were a couple people asking the flight attendants about [the plane] but there wasn't any weird panic or anything."
What it was like to be a passenger on one of these planes
Jenny Meads said she was "nervous" when she boarded a flight in Oakland and learned she was on a Max 8 plane. She only became aware of it when she saw the plane's pamphlet in the seat pocket.
The flight was turbulent, which didn't help.
"When we got back into airspace where our cells would turn on, I started getting these alerts on all the news stations that I have saying that they have been grounded," she told CNN after landing in Atlanta.
Meads said it was "pretty scary" when she heard about other countries grounding the Max 8 on Tuesday.
"I think it is the right choice, I mean what if God forbid, another one happens? They need to figure it out first for everybody's sake," Meads said.
CNN affiliate KPRC reporter Vincent Crivelli tweeted mid-flight from a Boeing 737 Max 9 plane that was flying from Houston to San Francisco. He noted the safety pamphlet about the aircraft, which was one of the types that had been grounded.
"I'm currently on one flying to @flySFO. A flight attendant was unaware of the emergency order. I still have couple hours left in my journey," he said on Twitter after he learned of the President's emergency order.
Other passengers were not too worried to be on one of the grounded types of planes.
Passenger Adam Crawford realized he was on a Max 8, flying to Atlanta, when he, too, saw the safety pamphlet on the plane.
"It really didn't bother me," he told CNN. "I figured they would ground them if there was an issue. The flight was fine."
Some passengers never stepped on board
Dave Wasserman was waiting to board a flight at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston when a United Airlines employee said the aircraft could not be used.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to say that we are not going to use this aircraft to go to Orlando," the employee announced in a video.
"As you know, there is some controversy going on about the 737 Max aircraft. This is a 737 Max 9 aircraft. The controversy is with the 737 Max 8 aircraft. However, there's been an order issued to ground this aircraft so therefore we are going to replace it with a different type of aircraft," she said.
Passenger Mort Greenberg was waiting at the gate in Miami on American Airlines Flight 2809 when the news broke that the government was grounding all Boeing Max 8 planes. He was scheduled to fly on a Max 8 plane, as confirmed on Flight Radar 24.
"Airport staff were upfront and said that was reason. Moments later, news came out about the President's order," Greenberg told CNN via Twitter.
The flight was canceled, according to American Airlines' website. Greenberg, who works in advertising sales, was supposed to be flying into LaGuardia.
American Airlines issued a statement about the Max 8 groundings.
"American Airlines has 24 aircraft affected by this directive," the airline said in a statement. "Our teams will make every effort to rebook customers as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
Greenberg lauded American for communicating clearly and acting quickly to rebook his flight, he said.
"Better to be on the ground alive than falling to the ground and not being alive," Greenberg wrote.
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