It was a brand new Boeing 737 MAX, the same plane that Lion Airlines crashed a couple of months ago. In the Lion crash, it is believed that the autopilot got into a snivit and thought the plane was stalling. It took control of the stick, pushed the nose down to get out of the stall, and flew the aircraft into the ground, over the strenuous objections of the crew, who pulled back on the stick as hard as they could. Aircraft hit the water, killing all on board. This Ethiopian crash looks like it might be the same problem. It's too early to be sure, we have not had time to read out the cockpit recorders, but it sure looks suspicious. The Lion air crash investigation is not complete, and they have not issued any fixes to the 737 MAX based on that disaster, yet.
The 737 MAX is the well known 737 which has been flying for decades. The MAX part is a re engine mod, putting on bigger, more powerful and more fuel efficient engines on a well proven airliner. The anti stall feature in the autopilot is a reaction to the Airbus crash in the south Atlantic a couple of years ago. In that disaster the entire flight crew, three qualified pilots in the cockpit, failed to recognize they had stalled the aircraft and failed to pull out of it. The plane hit the water, all on board were killed, and it took a couple of years of searching the ocean bed to find the flight recorders and figure out what had happened.
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