Ethiopian Air Crash: China Grounds All Its Boeing 737 Max 8 Planes, India Seeks More Details As Jet, SpiceJet Are At Risk

India’s aviation regulator has sought further information from Boeing after a second Boeing 737 MAX , this one operated by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed on Sunday (10 March) killing all 157 people on board, The Times Of India has reported.

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 MAX, took off at 08:38 am Ethiopian local time on Sunday from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44 am. It crashed around Bishoftu town, some 45 km from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the airline said.

On 29 October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air, crashed into the Java sea soon after take-off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

The ToI report quoted the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief, B S Bhullar, as saying that, "A Boeing 737 Max aircraft flown by Ethiopian Airlines has crashed. Our two airlines (Jet Airways and SpiceJet have these aircraft) and DGCA officials are in touch with Boeing for information. Further safety measures if required shall follow that."

After the Lion Air crash, the DGCA had instructed SpiceJet and Jet to take corrective action after the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing issued their own circulars. The aviation regulator also observer that as far as the operation of B 737 MAX with Indian operators is concerned, no technical issue has been experienced by the operators.

In India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways have the B737 Max in their fleet. SpiceJet currently has 13 of them flying while Jet has five operational, though some have been grounded due to severe financial troubles that the airline has been facing. Both airlines have placed orders for over 200 B737 Max planes each.

Earlier today, China's civilian aviation authority ordered all Chinese airlines to temporarily ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.

It said the order was "taken in line with the management principle of zero tolerance for security risks," because the crash was the second after another of the planes fell into the ocean off the coast of Indonesia in similar circumstances on 29 October killing all aboard.

Eight Chinese nationals, including one from Hong Kong, were confirmed aboard the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

The 157 people aboard the ill-fated Ethiopian Airline flight included nationals from over 30 countries including 32 from Kenya, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, five from the Netherlands, four each from India and Slovakia, three each from Austria, Russia and Sweden, two each from Israel, Morocco, Poland and Spain, and one each from Belgium, Djibouti, Indonesia, Ireland, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Yemen.

After the Indonesian air crash last October, there were suggestions that a new safety feature installed on the Boeing 737 MAX - but not described in the operating manual - backfired and may have contributed to the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. Boeing, however, has maintained that all information needed to fly the 737 safely is available to pilots and that its workhorse model is safe.

The inquiry into the crash of Lion Air 610 (a brand new Boeing 737 Max 8) was centered around its Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS helps pilots bring the nose down in the event the plane’s angle of attack drifts too high when flying manually and putting the aircraft at risk of stalling,