The only Boeing 737 MAX airliner operated in Kazakhstan, which belongs to the SCAT airline, will remain grounded until the Industry and Infrastructure Development Ministry is able to find out all circumstances of the recent plane crash in Ethiopia, Kazakh Industry and Infrastructure Development Minister Roman Sklyar said on Monday.

"We have suspended flights of the only Boeing 737 MAX belonging to the SCAT airline until all circumstances of the crash are clarified and the manufacturer issues its recommendations. The airliner will remain grounded for as long as it takes to clarify how safe it is in flight," the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper quoted Sklyar as saying.

Kazakhstan has four airlines which carry out domestic and international flights, and their fleet is in good order, he said.

"Their fleet of aircraft is in good condition, and there are no doubts about their further operation. This has been confirmed by the manufacturers, which inspect them annually, and our civil aviation technical services also closely monitor this," Sklyar said.

It had been reported earlier that Kazakhstan suspended the flights of the only Boeing 737 MAX operated in the country, which belongs to the SCAT airline, starting March 13.

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 of Ethiopian Airlines en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed 60 kilometers east of the Ethiopian capital on March 10. The crash killed 157 people on board. It was the second crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 within the past six months. In late October 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 of the Indonesian airline Lion Air fell into the Java Sea soon after its departure from the Jakarta Airport. None of the 189 people on board survived.