China's aviation regulator said Monday it had ordered Chinese airlines to suspend their Boeing Co. 737 Max aircraft operations by 6 p.m. following a deadly crash of a 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines.

An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.

It was the second crash of the 737 Max, the latest version of Boeing's workhorse narrow-body jet that first entered service in 2017.