Thirty of the same aircraft involved in the Ethiopian Airlines disaster that killed 157 people have been ordered by an Australian carrier.

Aerospace giant Boeing is building 30 of its 737 MAX 8 passengers planes for Virgin Australia as well as 10 of its larger MAX 10 airliners.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman told nine.com.au it was too early to comment on the disaster – the second fatal crash involving a 737 MAX 8.

The airline is due to receive the first 737 MAX 8 late this year.

An Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 aircraft - the same model that crashed killing 157 people. (AAP/Supplied)

A Qantas spokesman said the airline does not operate any of the MAX series aircraft and has none on order.

Bloomberg has reported that China has asked domestic airlines to temporarily ground 737 Max jets.

More than 60 airlines around the world have ordered a total of 5,000 MAX aircraft so far.

American Airlines has 24 in its fleet, along with over 300 of the non-MAX version of the 737.

West Jet, another Canadian airline, has 13 on order.

Air China has 15 on order, which are set to be used on domestic routes within China.

Fiji Airways has two in service and three more on order.

Air Canada has 24 ordered for its domestic routes.

In a separate development, Boeing announced it is postponing the Seattle launch of its 777X passenger jet in the wake of the Ethiopia disaster.

All 157 people on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa that crashed on Sunday have died, the airline has confirmed.

There are believed to be no Australians among the 157 dead.

Rescue workers searched for bodies after the crash. (AAP/Supplied)

Among the fatalities there are at least 35 nationalities.Thirty two are from Kenya, 18 from Canada and eight from the US and Italy. There are also seven each from Britain and France.

The United Nations migration agency says the UN and its agencies on Monday will fly flags at half-staff after early indications show 19 employees of UN-affiliated organisations died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

The list reflected a broad range of backgrounds, with passengers also from China (8), Italy (8), Egypt (6), Germany (5), India (4), Slovakia (4), Austria (3), Sweden (3) and Russia (3) among others.

Some of those aboard were thought to be travelling to a major United Nations environmental meeting scheduled to start today in Nairobi.

Irish citizen Michael Ryan was one of the UN workers killed in the crash. (AAP) (AAP)

The tragedy follows the Lion Air flight – also a Boeing 737 MAX 8 - that went down over the Java Sea last October, killing all 189 people on board.

The new model was unveiled less than two years ago to great fanfare by the US aviation giant.

According to Boeing's recent reports, 350 MAX planes have already been delivered to airlines across the world. A further 4,661 have been ordered.

Neil Hansford, chairman of airline consultancy Strategic Aviation Solutions, said it was too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, investigations would centre on a new technological feature.

Boeing has sent experts to help with the air crash investigation. (EPA/AAP)

The 737 Max 8’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) automatically pulls the plane's nose down if data suggests it is at risk.

During the Lion Air crash, the system was responding to faulty data that suggested the nose was tilted at a higher angle than it was, indicating the plane was at risk of stalling.

The MCAS was installed because the larger engines on the MAX 8 changed the aerodynamics of the plane and shifted conditions in which a stall could occur.