They cited ICAO guidelines that assign the country in which the crash occurred with responsibility for releasing information. Rescue workers planned to use drones in the search for the planes black boxes, which should contain information from instruments and sound from the cockpit. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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Still, data does suggest an extreme rate of descent and safety experts say only a handful of other crashes involved comparable descent rates, two of which resulted from deliberate pilot action. [16] Footage from the crash site showed wreckage and a fire. An initial readout of the China Eastern planes flight data recorder in April suggested there were deliberate pilot inputs prior to the crash, aviation trade publication Leeham News and Analysis reported. What does the future of aviation look like in 2022? The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it started to fall. Goglia says the China Eastern accident appears amazingly similar to the EgyptAir and SilkAir crashes. [48] COVID-19 quarantine regulations may hamper access of U.S. investigators to mainland China. Airlines were allowed to resume using the 737 Max after Boeing redesigned the system in a process overseen by regulators from the United States, Europe, China and the Middle East. The crash site is surrounded on three sides by mountains and is accessible only onfoot and by motorcycle on a steep dirt road in the semitropical Guangxi region, famed for some of China's most spectacular scenery. The FAA did not ground the planes. An effort is underway to power aircraft entirely with synthetic and sustainably derived jet fuel. Nearly a month after the crash, the airline quietly started returning its 737-800s to service. Authorities have yet to determine what caused China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 to crash with no apparent survivors. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is in the midst of a three-day visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping . Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies, Findings suggest one of the pilots of the plane may have caused the nosedive, or someone broke into the cockpit and did so. After this weeks crash, China Eastern grounded all of its 737-800s, Chinas Transport Ministry said. [26][27] All were Chinese.[28]. Confirming the cause of a plane crash sometimes takes months or years due to the need to gather badly damaged debris. Still, no Chinese airlines have re-started Max flights. The plane appeared to nosedive from a cruising altitude of. Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? The Boeing 737-800 passenger jet was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it plunged into a mountainous area in Guangxi, China, killing all 132 . Investigators face a formidable challenge in figuring out why China Eastern Flight 5735 crashed on March 21. The aircraft was powered by two CFM56-7B26E turbofan engines. SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express have the aircraft in their fleets. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the news. Sources China Eastern Black Box Points to Intentional Nosedive (WSJ) By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. At 15:56, firefighters from nearby Tangbu arrived, and at 16:40, firefighters from outside Wuzhou were dispatched from Guilin, Beihai, Hezhou, Laibin and Hechi. Rescuers have combed mountainous terrain in the search for wreckage from the downed Chinese jet. Mr Zhu said the aircraft did not respond to repeated calls from air controllers during its rapid descent. Pieces of the crashed plane's wreckage found at the crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang. Accept. [1][2][3][4] It is the third deadliest air crash in China after China Southern Airlines Flight 3943 and China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, the deadliest air accident in China Eastern Airlines' history, and the deadliest plane crash in 2022. 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No foreigners were on board the lost flight, the Foreign Ministry said, citing a preliminary review. The Boeing 737-800 passenger jet was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it plunged into a mountainous area in Guangxi, China. The airline also pointed to a preliminary report from the Chinese government that said efforts to restore data and analyze the planes damaged black boxes were still ongoing, the newspaper reported. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NTSB and Boeing are assisting with Chinas investigation. It crashed into the side of a mountain in a remote, forested area outside the city of Wuzhou. The Wall Street Journal is reporting an update regarding the crash of China Eastern flight MU5735, which was scheduled to operate from Kunming (KMG) to Guangzhou (CAN). [46] The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a senior official had been appointed as its representative to the inquiry. China Eastern officials said no evidence has been found that could confirm whether the aircraft had problems prior to the accident. China and Belarus called for a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine as leaders of the two countries meet in Beijing to improve their relations. [6][7], Contact with the aircraft was lost over the city of Wuzhou. China claims that no official information about the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 crash had been released to media, though it stopped short of denying claims that the crash was intentional. The plane has been flying since 1998 and has an excellent safety record, said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. 167 Recovery workers paused for a moment of silence on March 27 for victims of the. BEIJING Even after the finding of the two "black boxes," it may be a long time before investigators figure out what caused a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 to nosedive into the. Cox cites the rapid descent and crash in Indonesia in January 2007 of an Adam Air 737-400, which dived from 35,000ft at a descent rate that reached 53,760ft per minute, according to Indonesian investigators. Of those, nearly 4,300 remain in service, according to Cirium. The outpouring of grief following the crash of a Boeing 737-800 jet near Wuzhou in the Guangxi region flooded Chinese social media. The project aims to modernise instrument arrival and departure procedures by adapting them to area navigation and performance-based navigation requirements. [8] At 14:22 (06:22 UTC), while approaching its top of descent into Guangzhou, the aircraft entered a sudden steep descent from 29,100 feet (8,900m). The jet banked steeply and the pilots were unable to recover. Any unofficial speculation may interfere with the accident investigation and affect the real progress of the global air transport industry, China Eastern said in a statement. That says the Chinese are convinced that the 737-800, as a fleet type, does not have a problem.. [68], VariFlight reported that nearly 74 percent of the 11,800 flights scheduled in China on 22 March were cancelled as a result of the crash. According to Aviation Safety Network, China's last fatal jet accident was in 2010, when 44 of 96 people on board were killed when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Data recovered from black box suggests human input caused crash, not mechanical problem, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told China's state-run daily Global Times on Wednesday (18), that it has confirmed with staff from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) participating in the investigation into the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, that they have not released any information about the investigation, refuting previous foreign media . The Boeing 737-800 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which flew from Kunming to Guangzhou, plunged into the mountains in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou. That kind of vertical dive, without a radio call of any kind from the flightcrew, could clearly indicate a human activity to make that happen, says aviation safety consultant and former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia. [5], The aircraft departed Kunming Changshui International Airport for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 13:15 CST (05:15 UTC)[5] and was scheduled to land at 15:05 (07:05 UTC). And air regulators and Boeing istelf are not working on any new safety directives or warnings related to the crash. Chinese officials leading the crash investigation have not flagged any apparent mechanical or flight problems with the plane. Goglia notes that the China Eastern pilots made no contact with air traffic control. ", "China's top leadership says cause of plane crash must be found soon", "Damaged black boxes in China jet crash leave few clues into cause", "China Crash Mystery Grows as Evidence Signals Midair", "A Flight Over China in Clear Skies, Followed by a Nosedive", "China Eastern Black Box Points to Intentional Nosedive", "China Eastern crash probe looks into crew actions, sources say", "Chinese plane crash that killed 132 caused by intentional act: US officials", "China Eastern probe eyes intentional action, sources say", "Live Updates: China Eastern Plane Crashes in Remote Mountain Valley", "How Boeing is responding to the 737800 crash in China", "China Eastern Resumes Flights of Boeing 737 Model Involved in Crash", "Chinese air travel faces mass cancellations after plane crash", "China Eastern faces losses, regulatory scrutiny after fatal crash", "China Finds Flight Recorder From Plane Crash as Rain Hinders Search", "World leaders express sympathy for Chinese air crash victims", "India Puts Boeing 737 Fleets On 'Enhanced Surveillance' After China Plane Crash", "Futures edge lower, Boeing shares fall after 737 crash", "Boeing Statement on China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735", Aerial view of crash site in Guangxi (5 photos), 1946 United States Air Force C-47 Crash at Yan'an, List of China Eastern Airlines destinations, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=China_Eastern_Airlines_Flight_5735&oldid=1140170790, Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 Next Generation, China Eastern Airlines accidents and incidents, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 20:20. A Boeing 737 jet crashed into a hillside in Southern China on March 21, killing 132 people on board. However, neither China's authorities nor Boeing released any technical recommendations since the event. Scott Walton died piloting a medical flight in Nevada on Feb. 24. While Indonesias air travel market is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, several challenges confront the countrys airlines. Josh Marcus. [29][30] It was sent to Beijing for data extraction. What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? They have been involved in 22 accidents that damaged the planes beyond repair and killed 612 people. The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit, says an anonymous source quoted by the newspaper. The jet was a Boeing 737-800, a model long viewed as a reliable workhorse in the industry. A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft. We provide news, data, analytics and advisory services to connect the aviation community globally and help organisations shape their business strategies, identify new opportunities and make better decisions faster. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. What happened? State-run media focused on the emergency crews' response, including detailed lists of their equipment and provisions, and orders from Xi Jinping that officials do everything possible to find survivors. China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. ABC News' Mark Osborne contributed to this report. Investigators searching for clues into the crash of China Eastern flight MU 5735 will look at any damage and subsequent repairs performed on the rear bulkhead as a possible cause. Twenty-six people were killed and at least 85 injured after two trains collided head-on in Greece late on Tuesday night, while the cause of the deadliest rail crash in Greece in decades remained . But just over an hour into its journey, China Eastern Flight MU5735 pitched over into a sudden near-vertical dive. This led the investigation toward the pilot or the possibility of a cockpit breach. That theory had been circulating virtually since the narrowbody came down, but Chinas release of an initial accident report on 20 April included no details to dispel it. On 21 March 2022, the Boeing 737-89P aircraft operating the service descended steeply mid-flight and struck the ground at high speed in Teng County, Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, killing all 123 passengers and 9 crew members. The China Eastern flight was aboard a Boeing model 737-800, a widely used plane with one of the best safety records in commercial aviation. [17] All of the plane's occupants died. But other Chinese airlines continued operating the type. Americas owner-flown aircraft enthusiasts and active-pilot resource, delivered to your inbox! The US is cautious against acting in any way that might push China closer to Russia or encourage Chinese support for Moscows invasion of Ukraine, say observers. That kind of vertical dive, without a radio call of any kind from the flightcrew, could clearly indicate a human activity to make that happen, aviation safety consultant and former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia told FlightGlobal in April. Multiple reports say that the airplane was deliberately crashed, but the official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is ongoing. [71], Within two hours of the crash 20 people claimed to have "survived" by not boarding the flight. They will examine pieces of the wreckage for clues. In April, the CAAC issued a brief statement about the investigation, stating little more than that work to recover and analyse data from the recorders was underway, and that the devices had suffered severe damage. The aircraft had been in service since 2015. "Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735," a Boeing . [29][38] The crash site was concentrated within a 30-metre (100ft) radius where most of the wreck was found. [32] Firefighters were dispatched by the Wuzhou Fire and Rescue Department at 15:05 CST. [39] Rescue workers found a 1.3-metre-long (4ft 3in) wreckage fragment, believed to be part of the aircraft, 10 kilometres (6mi) from the main site. Aviation safety experts increasingly see only a few plausible reasons why a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plunged into the ground on 21 March, killing all 132 people aboard. Journey, China Eastern officials said no evidence has been flying since and... 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