China and Ethiopia ground Boeing 737 Max 8

March 11, 2019

Ethiopia and China have ordered all of their Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger aircraft to be grounded indefinitely for checks after Sunday’s air disaster in Ethiopia.

Nearly 160 people were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged into farmland near the capital, Addis Ababa.

It was the second crash of the 737 MAX 8, the latest version of Boeing’s workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017.

In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board.

A Boeing spokesman declined to comment.