China Suspends Boeing 737 Max 8 After Two Fatal Crashes Within 5 Months

An Ethiopian aircraft carrying 157 people ploughed into a field six minutes after take-off yesterday, leaving no survivors.

The plane was the same model involved in the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people on board.

In both cases, the brand new planes had issues within minutes after take-off.

According to Channel NewsAsia, Chinese news portal Caijing made the announcement today, 11 March following the latest incident.

All 60 planes of the same model have been suspended of their use following orders from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

In the meantime, flights scheduled to use the Boeing 737 Max will use 737-800 plane models instead, Channel NewsAsia reported.

"Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity," the CAAC said, according to the report.

Investigations revealed that Lion Air's plane crash last year was due to a malfunctioning sensor in the computerised system, which had repeatedly forced the nose of the plane downwards.

According to The Guardian, the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines has yet to be determined.  

It is understood that the pilot reported an unspecified issue and was given permission to return the flight to the airport it departed from. However, minutes later, all signals were lost and the plane plunged to the ground.