Australia joins a growing list of countries that have grounded the newest variant of Boeing's long-standing and best selling single-aisle workhorse, which only entered service in 2017. Shortly after CASA's announcement, Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said it was also grounding all Boeing 737 MAXs as a precautionary measure, and also preventing any from flying over UK airspace. Loading France, China, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Oman and Indonesia have all grounded the jet, while several airlines such as AeroMexico, Royal Air Maroc, Cayman Airways, South Korea's Eastar Jet, Norway's Air Shuttle and South Africa's Comair have chosen to pull it from service. But the United States' Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday gave the MAX a green light to keep flying, saying it was too early to know if there were any similarities between the two crashes.

Due to the high cost of testing and certifying new aircraft, it is common for aviation authorities like CASA to defer to safety checks completed by their American or European counterparts. CASA had said earlier on Tuesday that it would be guided by the FAA's investigation into the crashes. The FAA on Tuesday did order Boeing to implement a number of design changes to the new anti-stall computer system installed on the MAX, which was identified as contributing to the Lion Crash. It will require pilots to undergo more training, including in a flight simulator, before they can operate the new jet. Red Cross workers combing the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines crash for evidence and personal belongings outside Addis Ababa. Credit:AP Virgin Australia has 40 MAX aircraft on order, and said it was "closely watching the situation", flagging it could change its order depending on the outcome of the investigations.

"With our first aircraft delivery not due until November this year, we believe there is sufficient time to consider the outcome of the investigation and make an assessment," a Virgin spokeswoman said. Loading Virgin's incoming CEO Paul Scurrah will take the controls of Australia's second-largest airline from John Borghetti on March 25, and was already expected to take a hard look at whether Virgin could afford the MAX order after the airline has run up a string of heavy losses over the past decade. Fiji Airways said in a statement issued late on Tuesday night that it will change the aircraft type operating to and from Australian destinations, and that some schedule changes are likely. "While Fiji Airways is confident in the airworthiness of our Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and our robust training programme, we respect CASA's position," the statement said.

The airline had flights using the 737 MAX scheduled for Wednesday morning and was forced by the grounding to cancel its 6.15am flight from Sydney to Nadi. In the wake of the Lion Air crash, investigators focused on the new anti-stall system installed on the MAX that forces the plane’s nose down if it detects it is flying at too steep an angle, and whether that function was triggered by incorrect information being fed into the system. Loading Some pilots were not aware of that new function, but Boeing has said that all pilots know how to override the jet’s automatic functions, whether they knew about the new Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) or not. The MAX is the latest variant of Boeing’s best-selling 737, which has become the single-aisle workhorse for airlines’ short-haul operations around the globe over the past 51 years.