China and Indonesia have grounded their fleets of Boeing's 737 MAX 8 aircraft as witnesses recalled the terrifying spectacle of smoke and debris trailing from an Ethiopian Airlines plane before it crashed, killing 157 people.
The disaster came just months after a jet of the same model came down in Indonesia killing 189 people, and prompted a global aviation safety scare.
The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 plunged into farmland minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi on Sunday.
The victims came from more than 30 nations and included 22 United Nations' staff.
Investigators seeking to find the cause of the crash discovered the black box with both the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data on Monday, Ethiopian state TV said.
Rescue workers are gathering plane debris as well as victims' belongings with the help of villagers. Source: AAP
Boeing's share price plunged at the prospect that two such crashes in such a short time could reveal flaws in its new plane.
The company has already accepted orders for more than 5000 of the new, high fuel economy planes, which entered service less than two years ago and are set to be the workhorses for airlines around the globe for decades.
The 737 line, which has flown for more than 50 years, is the world's best selling modern passenger aircraft and viewed as one of the industry's most reliable.
The new MAX 8 variant, with bigger engines designed to use less fuel, entered service in 2017. By the end of January this year, Boeing had delivered 350 of the new jets to customers, with another 4661 on order.
Various worried nations took swift action.
Ethiopian Airlines, which has four other 737 MAX 8 jets, said it was grounding them as a precaution. China also ordered its airlines to suspend their 737 MAX 8 jets by 6pm.
Noting that the accidents involving newly delivered planes had both taken place shortly after take-off, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after contacting Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Indonesia, where a Lion Air 737 Max 8 went down in October, also said it would temporarily ground the model for inspection.
Cayman Airways grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets temporarily too, while India announced a safety review.
The dead included aid workers, doctors, professors of literature and botany, a law student, a newlywed woman, a father soon expecting a child, and a couple who just had a baby.
In Nairobi, a major hub for aid workers and diplomats, a summit opened with a moment of silence and tears for the UN members killed.
In New York, the 15-member UN Security Council also stood to remember the dead.
The aeroplane was received in November 2018, had flown more than 1200 hours, and returned from Johannesburg earlier on Sunday, chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said.
Photographs of the crew members of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 that crashed are displayed during a memorial service. Source: AAP
The flight had unstable vertical speed after take-off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted. The Sweden-based service said the jet had climbed almost 1000 feet (330m) after taking off from Addis Ababa, a hot and high-altitude airport whose thinner air requires extra effort from an aircraft's engines.
It dipped about 450 feet (137m) before rapidly climbing another 900 feet until the point where satellite tracking data was lost.
