China grounds Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft

China's civil aviation authority has grounded nearly 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft indefinitely, following the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash involving the same type of plane.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China ordered all domestic airlines to suspend the operation of their 737 MAX 8 aircraft on Monday. 

The administration said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after liaising with Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

All 157 people aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight have been confirmed dead. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent his condolences to the leaders of Ethiopia and Kenya, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

Among the eight Chinese victims, four were employees of Chinese companies, two worked for the United Nations and two were from Liaoning and Zhejiang provinces on personal trips, Lu said.

The accident occurred a few minutes after the 737 MAX 8 took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya.

It is the second air crash involving the 737 MAX 8 within five months. In October 2018, a 737 MAX 8 with Indonesian Lion Air, flight JT610, crashed into the sea with 189 people on board.

"Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes and happened during the takeoff phase, they have some degree of similarity,” the aviation administration said. It added the suspension was in line with its principle of "zero tolerance of safety risks." 

"We've been communicating with the FAA and Boeing since the Lion Air crash last year, but they could hardly decide to (ground the planes), so we took the lead in making the decision," said Li Jian, deputy director of the administration.

Chinese airlines operate 96 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Domestic operators include China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Air China and China Southern, as well as Hainan, Xiamen, Shandong and Shenzhen airlines.

At least 29 international and domestic flights were canceled on Monday, and airlines had to swap aircraft for 256 flights.

Shanghai Airlines changed to an Airbus 320 to operate its flight from Pudong to Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning Province. 

Air China deployed a Boeing 737-800 to replace a 737 MAX 8 for a flight from Beijing to Guiyang in southwest China's Guizhou Province. 

The Guangzhou-based China Southern, the biggest Chinese operator of the aircraft, has canceled 18 flights.

The Shanghai-based China Eastern will only consider resuming 737 MAX 8 flights once Boeing has issued a safety guarantee, said Liu Shaoyong, the chairman. The carrier has 14 such aircraft.

Wang Yu, chairman of Spring Airlines, said the grounding showed how highly passenger safety is regarded.

"Many of China's safety standards and management measures are stricter than most other countries," Wang said, though the budget carrier operates no 737 MAX 8s.

Ethiopian Airlines said it had grounded its 737 MAX 8 fleet until further notice as an “extra safety precaution” even though it did not know the cause of Sunday’s crash.

Cayman Airways also said it was temporarily grounding the two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft it operates, as of Monday.

Boeing has delivered 350 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft with over 4,000 orders worldwide. Boeing has said it will send a technical team to the crash site to provide assistance.

It said it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew."

Safety experts cautioned, however, against drawing too many parallels between the Ethiopian and Indonesian crashes.

"I do hope though that people will wait for the first results of the investigation instead of jumping to conclusions based on the very little facts that we know so far," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network.

The situation will be better understood after investigators find and analyze the Ethiopian plane's black boxes, said William Waldock, an aviation safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

He said the way the planes both crashed, a fatal nosedive, was likely to raise suspicion.

"Investigators are not big believers in coincidence," he said.

Waldock said Boeing will look closely at the flight-management system and automation on the Max.