Airplane Crash in China kills 132 on board.
Beijing: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 with 132 passengers on board crashed in the mountains of southern China on Monday following a steep drop from cruising altitude on a domestic flight. There were no survivors, according to the media.
The airline expressed its condolences for the deaths of passengers and personnel but did not say how many people were killed.
According to Chinese media, a brief highway video footage from a vehicle’s dashcam appeared to show a jet plunging to the earth behind trees at an angle of roughly 35 degrees off vertical.
When the plane crashed, it was en route from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.
According to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane dropped at 31,000 feet per minute. China Eastern said the reason for the disaster was under investigation.
The airline said it set up a hotline for relatives of those on board and dispatched a team to the crash site. According to China Eastern and Chinese official television, no foreigners were aboard the flight.
According to the media, the plane collapsed and ignited a fire that destroyed bamboo trees. However, a provincial firefighting department official was quoted in the People’s Daily claiming that there was no trace of life among the rubble.
According to state media, a chunk of the jet was seen on a damaged, earthen hillside. There were no signs of a fire or personal items.
#China Civil Aviation Administration confirmed the crash of a Boeing 737 on Monday. There were 132 people on board, including 123 passengers and nine crew members.
"Emergency mechanism has been activated, and a working group has been dispatched to the scene," the statement added pic.twitter.com/1Zq1liIqXD
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) March 21, 2022
The plane, which was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, lost communication over Wuzhou, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the airline.
According to FlightRadar24 data, the flight left Kunming at 1:11 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou at 3:05 p.m. (0705 GMT).
At 0620 GMT, the jet, which Flightradar24 claimed was six years old, traveled at 29,100 feet. However, data revealed it had dropped to 9,075 feet in just over two minutes and 15 seconds.
Its last tracked altitude was 3,225 feet after 20 seconds. Even though the cruising phase of a flight accounts for most of the flight time, crashes are uncommon.
According to Boeing, just 13 percent of fatal commercial accidents occurred during the cruise phase between 2011 and 2020, compared to 28 percent on the final approach and 26 percent on landing.
“During the cruise stage, the plane is usually on autopilot. As a result, it’s challenging to comprehend what occurred, “a Chinese aviation specialist, Li Xiaojin, said
At the time of the crash, online weather data in Wuzhou showed partly cloudy skies with good visibility.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, President Xi Jinping has asked investigators to discover the reason for the crash as quickly as possible.
“We are aware of the early media allegations and are attempting to obtain further information,” a Boeing representative said.
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