The FAA was prompted to ground all Boeing 737 Max aircraft after data found the flight paths of two planes which both crashed months apart were similar.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order grounding the planes Wednesday. On Tuesday it claimed it had no basis to ground the planes.
However it did a u-turn on Wednesday as new satellite data and evidence that showed the movements of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 were similar to those of Lion Air Flight 610, CBS News reported.
The FAA was prompted to ground all Boeing 737 Max aircraft after data found the flight paths of two planes which both crashed months apart were similar
An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed Sunday killing 157 people, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa.
A Lion Air flight on a 737 Max 8 crashed in October in Indonesia, taking the lives of its 189 passengers and crew.
More than 40 countries, including the U.S., have now grounded the planes or refused to let them into their airspace.
Both planes struggled to maintain altitude in the minutes after takeoff.
Evidence found at the crash site outside the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa showed additional similarities.
Officials at Lion Air have said sensors on their plane produced erroneous information on its last four flights, triggering an automatic nose-down command that the pilots were unable to overcome on its final voyage.
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said its pilots had received special training on how to deal with that problem, and Boeing sent further instructions for pilots after the Lion Air crash.
The FAA said new satellite data and evidence that showed the movements of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 were similar to those of Lion Air Flight 610. Pictured debris at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu
A Lion Air flight on a 737 Max 8 crashed in October in Indonesia, taking the lives of its 189 passengers and its crew. Pictured are investigators inspecting the wreckage
Rescue teams walk past collected bodies in bags at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres on Sunday
Tewolde said he is confident
