China grounds Max 8 planes after crash

Civil aviation authorities told domestic airlines on Monday to ground nearly 100 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, more than a quarter of the total in operation worldwide, after one of the planes operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed on Sunday.

All 157 people on board the aircraft from Addis Ababa to Nairobi died, including eight Chinese nationals, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The tragedy follows the crash of a Lion Air Max 8 plane that went down over the Java Sea in October, killing 189 people.

"Considering the two accidents took place when newly delivered Boeing 737 Max 8s went down just minutes after taking off, they have some degree of similarity," the Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a statement on Monday.