Beijing/Addis Ababa: The Chinese government and Ethi¬o¬pia Monday grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, a day after an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off Sunday, prompting the carrier to ground the rest of its fleet of the jets. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice Monday morning ordering domestic airlines to suspend the commercial operations of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft before 6 pm, CNN reported.
In October 2018, another aircraft of the same model being operated by Lion Air had crashed in Indonesia 12 minutes after take-off due to failures in the automatic system, killing 189 people on board.
The CAAC said the decision was taken owing to security concerns after two other newly-delivered Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes had crashed similarly in the take-off phase.
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