On March 10, a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at around 8:30 a.m., killing all 157 people on board. In October 2018, a Lion Air-operated 737 Max 8 crashed into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. In other words, pilots had around 40 seconds to counteract the activation of the planes' MCAS, which can be triggered by mistake. On Monday, the American manufacturer announced that it will provide free software updates to airlines that have purchased the 737 Max 8 jets. Days after the the Ethiopian Airlines crash, a number of countries including China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and EU states began blocking the Boeing 737 Max 8 from their airspace.

Source: Ethiopian News March 26, 2019 20:15 UTC