Boeing’s stock dropped Monday, a day after a fatal crash in Ethiopia involving the newest version of its most popular jet, the 737 Max.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed just outside Addis Ababa shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The plane’s flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders have been recovered, but the cause of the crash is unknown and will take weeks to investigate.
But the crash was the second for a new version of the 737 Max after one of the jets operated by Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea off Indonesia in late October, and some countries and carriers responded by grounding their fleets of the plane.
Ethiopian Airlines grounded all of its 737 Max 8 planes, and China and Indonesia ordered the grounding of all 737 Max planes. Cayman Airways said it was grounding two new 737 Max jets, and Chinese airlines on Monday began using Boeing 737-800s on routes typically flown by 737 Max jets.
“Although we don’t yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution,” Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement Monday.