COLOMBO, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka is monitoring the safety issue of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after a crash in Ethiopia earlier this week killed 157 people on board, Director General of Civil Aviation H.M.C Nimalsiri said here Thursday.

Quoted in local media reports, Nimalsiri said that Sri Lanka was monitoring the situation closely but no such aircraft was overflying or landing in Sri Lanka at the moment.

Six operators who flew the model to Sri Lanka's Bandaranaike International Airport had grounded the aircraft and with India also banning the model from its skies, this has blocked the entry of the Boeing 737 MAX to Sri Lanka, Nimalsiri said.

"We will take further steps once more information on the cause of the crash in Ethiopia is available," he said.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft have been grounded in a number of countries and regions in Asia-Pacific amid safety concerns following the fatal crash of the Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet.

The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, Kenya crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.

It was the second deadly crash for a Boeing 737 MAX 8 model in less than five months. The first one occurred in October last year when an aircraft of the same model operated by Indonesia's Lion Air plunged into the waters off western Indonesia minutes after taking off, killing 189 people.