Search teams have found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed outside Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 on board. The discoveries come as more airlines around the world grounded their fleets of 737 Max 8s after the Civil Aviation Authority of China ordered the grounding of all 96 of the model registered in that country. Most recently, Indonesian authorities ordered Lion Air and Garuda to suspend operations of their Max 8s, after Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways each removed their fleets from service.
In its order, the Chinese CAA said it grounded the fleet “in line with the management principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards,” noting the fact that both the Ethiopian crash and the crash of a Lion Air Max 8 in Indonesia four months ago happened during the takeoff phase and that the two exhibited “certain similarities.”
Flight ET 302 took off from Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport for Nairobi at 8:38 a.m. local time on Sunday. Air traffic control lost contact with the crew just six minutes later. The airplane crashed near Bishoftu, about 35 miles southeast of Addis Ababa.