A China Eastern Airlines plane crashed near the city of Wuzhou in southwest China on Monday, March 21, 2022. 132 people (not 133 as reported in the Chinese press yesterday morning) were on board the flight from Guangzhou to Kunming.
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A plane crashed in China
According to Le Parisien, the causes of the crash are not yet known, but the Boeing 737 was only six years old. The last plane crash in China was in 2010 when 44 out of 96 passengers died. This is China's deadliest air crash in nearly three decades.
The plane started a fire big enough to be seen from space, and was completely incinerated, forcing rescuers to search a rugged, remote mountainside.
For the moment, it seems that there are no survivors. However, state broadcasters showed images of the charred remains of letters, bags, wallets, and identity cards belonging to those on board.
Chinese President speaks out
According to Flightradar24, flight MU5735 plummeted more than 20,000 feet in just over one minute. A car's dash-cam footage shows the plane nose dive to the ground at high speed.
Xi Jinping, the president of the People's Republic of China, said he was 'shocked.' The head of state, in power since 2013, called on investigators to 'determine the cause of the accident as soon as possible.' The carrier China Eastern Airlines confirmed 'deaths' among the 123 passengers and nine crew members. The airline, one of the country's largest, also offered their condolences.
After the crash, China Eastern and two subsidiaries grounded its fleet of 737-800 planes. The group has 225 of the aircraft, according to data from British aviation consultancy IBA.
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A ‘very unusual’ crash
Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of the BEA (Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for the safety of civil aviation) explained to AFP that it was too early to draw conclusions. He said:
On the Flightradar site, we can see that the plane, which was at cruising altitude (at nearly 9,000m altitude), suddenly plunged to about 600km/h towards the ground before crashing. It is very unusual, a simple stall would not give this kind of profile at all.
He continues:
A stall at high altitude can be recovered very, very well. This is something else.
The Boeing Company is once again in the turmoil. However, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft has never had any particular problems, unlike the Boeing 737-MAX.
This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag FR.
