A China Eastern Boeing B 737-800 passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed in a remote mountainous area of southern China on Monday, according to local authorities, sparking a forest fire visible from space in the worst disaster. airline of the Asian country in almost 10 years.
More than 18 hours after communication with the plane was lost, nothing was known about the fate of the passengers and crew members, leaving families waiting to learn if anyone survived.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the accident occurred near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region. The plane was flying from Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan to the industrial hub of Guangzhou on the east coast.
China Eastern Flight 5735 was traveling at about 523 miles per hour and an estimated 29,000 feet when it entered a steep and rapid nosedive around 2:20 p.m. local time, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The aircraft plunged to 7,400 feet before briefly recovering about 1,200 feet in altitude and then dipping again. The aircraft stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it began to fail.
Local villagers were the first to arrive at the wooded area where the plane crashed and started a fire big enough to be seen on NASA satellite images. Hundreds of rescuers were quickly dispatched from Guangxi province and neighboring Guangdong province.
The Eastern plane was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, the CAAC said, correcting earlier reports that there were 133 people on board. It had been about an hour into the flight and was nearing the point where it would start descending toward Guangzhou when it crashed to the ground. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a “full effort” by the rescue operation, as well as an investigation of the accident and ensuring the full safety of civil aviation.
Most of the relatives of the crew members arrived at a China Eastern office near the Kunming airport from where the plane took off, state broadcaster CCTV reported. On Monday night, an Associated Press reporter saw police and security guards patrolling outside the office with flashlights, ordering journalists to leave.
At a hotel near the airport, about a dozen people, some wearing jackets identifying them as members of China’s aviation agency, crowded around tables and read documents.
State media reported that all 737-800s in China Eastern’s fleet were ordered grounded. Aviation experts said it is unusual to ground an entire fleet of planes unless there is evidence of a problem with the model. China has more 737-800s than any other country, nearly 1,200, and if identical planes at other Chinese airlines are grounded, “it could have a significant impact on domestic travel,” aviation consultant IBA said.
Boeing 737-800s have been flying since 1998 and Boeing has sold more than 5,100 of them. They have been involved in 22 accidents that damaged planes beyond repair and killed 612 people, according to data compiled by the Aviation Safety Network, an arm of the Flight Safety Foundation.
“There are thousands of them all over the world. It certainly has had an excellent safety record,” the foundation’s president, Hassan Shahidi, said of the 737-800.
The plane was not a Boeing 737 Max, the planes that were grounded around the world for nearly two years after deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.
China’s aviation safety record has improved since the 1990s, as air travel has grown dramatically with the rise of a growing middle class. Before Monday, the last fatal Chinese plane crash occurred in August 2010, when an Embraer ERJ 190-100 operated by Henan Airlines hit the ground near the runway in the northeastern city of Yichun and caught fire. It carried 96 people and 44 of them died. Investigators blamed pilot error.
The US National Transportation Safety Board tweeted Monday that it had chosen a lead investigator to help with the crash investigation. The US Federal Aviation Administration, which certified the 737-800 in the 1990s, said it was ready to help the investigation if requested.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. said it was in contact with the US safety board “and our technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.” Boeing shares fell 3.6% during trading in New York. The safety board said engine maker CFM, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran, would provide technical help on engine problems. Accident investigations are usually led by officials from the country where the accident occurred, but typically include the aircraft manufacturer and the investigator or regulator in the manufacturer’s home country. Shahidi said he expects investigators to look into the maintenance history of the plane and its engines, pilot training and records, discussions of air traffic control and other issues. Headquartered in Shanghai, China Eastern is one of the country’s top three airlines, operating dozens of domestic and international routes serving 248 destinations.
The aircraft was delivered to Boeing Aircraft in June 2015 and had been flying for more than six years. China Eastern Airlines uses the Boeing 737-800 as the workhorse of its fleet: the airline has more than 600 planes and 109 are Boeing 737-800s.
Broadcaster CCTV said China Eastern has set up nine teams to deal with aircraft disposal, accident investigation, family assistance and other urgent matters. Both the CAAC and China Eastern said they had dispatched officials to the crash site in accordance with emergency measures. China Eastern online made its website have a black and white home page after the accident.
The accident quickly became a top topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform, with 1.34 billion views and 690,000 discussions. Many publications expressed their condolences to the families of the victims, while others questioned the safety of the planes. The twin-engine, single-aisle Boeing 737 in various versions has been flying for more than 50 years and is one of the world’s most popular aircraft for short and medium-haul flights. The 737 Max, a later version, was grounded for about 20 months after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. In December, China’s aviation regulator cleared the Max to return to service, making the country the latest major market to do so, though Chinese airlines have yet to resume Max flights.
The deadliest accident involving a Boeing 737-800 occurred in January 2020, when Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight, killing all 176 people on board.
