Live Updates: China Grounds Boeing 737 Max 8 Planes After Ethiopia Crash

Author: The New York Times / Source: New York Times

• The newest version of Boeing’s most popular jet is again under scrutiny after a deadly crash on Sunday, leading airlines around the world to ground their fleets’ 737 Max 8 planes.

• China’s Civil Aviation Administration was first to order its airlines on Monday morning to ground all of the country’s 96 aircraft in operation.

Ethiopian Airlines, which operated the flight on Sunday, later followed.

• A Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The circumstances were similar to an October crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people.

China grounds all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft

China ordered its airlines on Monday to ground all 96 of the aircraft that they operate.

The Chinese aviation regulator said in its announcement that it had notified Chinese air carriers at 9 a.m. that they had nine hours to take the planes out of service.

Flight tracking websites showed that Chinese airlines were substituting Boeing 737-800s on Monday morning on routes where they had previously operated a Boeing 737 Max 8.

China’s main airlines are among the biggest users so far of the new Boeing jets, having taken delivery of most of the planes they have ordered. By contrast, many other carriers, often in slower-growing markets than China’s, have taken delivery of only a small fraction of their orders for the Boeing 737 Max 8.