On March 10 , 2019 , Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 , 737 MAX 8 registration ET-AVJ , crashed approximately six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , on a scheduled flight to Nairobi , Kenya , killing all 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board . The aircraft was four months old at the time . The cause of the crash is unclear , though the aircraft 's vertical speed after takeoff was reported to be unstable . Evidence retrieved on the crash site suggests that , at the time of the crash , the aircraft was configured to dive , similar to Lion Air Flight 610 . According to Ethiopian transport minister Dagmawit Moges , on April 4 , the crew " performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft " . On May 21 , CNBC reported that according to a person familiar with the matter , U.S. aviation officials believe a bird strike may have led to the crash of ET302 . Boeing 's shares rose in response to this information . The subsequent findings in the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash led to the Boeing 737 MAX groundings across the world
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
Boeing 737 MAX