A US Senate panel will hold a hearing on two fatal crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger planes in recent months.

A Senate committee says the hearing on aviation safety, due to be held next Wednesday, will include top officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The committee also plans to hold a separate hearing in the near future to hear from Boeing officials and airline pilots.

The two crashes, one in October in Indonesia, the other earlier this month in Ethiopia, occurred immediately after takeoff.

Aviation experts have pointed out that a system designed to prevent the aircraft's nose pointing too high may have malfunctioned, resulting in sudden deceleration.

The upcoming hearing is expected to focus on whether the FAA's decision to certify the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was appropriate, as well as on what caused the accidents.

The back-to-back accidents have led to the grounding of the MAX 8 across the world, including in the United States.

NHK