More broadly, China and the USA have for several years been fighting a trade war and battling over industrial intellectual property, fallout from which already landed on Boeings 737 Max. But events involving such extreme descent rates do not always result from deliberate pilot action. In each case, flight-control software pushed the nose down shortly after takeoff, and pilots could not regain control. Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his "shock " over the incident, and called for investigators to determine the cause of the crash as soon as possible and to ensure . The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said all information on the investigation will come from their counterparts in the Civil Aviation Administration of China, but regulators and Boeing have not flagged any mechanical issues. Let's investigate further. But other Chinese airlines continued operating the type. No distress call was received. The jet was airworthy and the crew were qualified, and investigators have no evidence the 737 was carrying dangerous cargo. The China Eastern Airlines Corp. jet was flying a normal route to Guangzhou when it suddenly nosed over at cruise altitude and dove. 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 . The Civil Aviation Administration of China has not yet determined the ultimate cause of the crash, and China Eastern has previously said the pilot flying the plane was in good physical, emotional, and financial health. [9] The aircraft crashed in the mountainous regions of Teng County causing a fire in nearby vegetation. In 2019, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections of 38 Boeing 737 NG planes, including 737-800s, because of cracks found in a part that connects the wings to the fuselage. The aircraft had been in service since 2015. China Eastern noted the unlikeliness of anyone breaching the cockpit, as an emergency code was not broadcast. [45], American agencies responded as representatives of the country where the aircraft was manufactured. The China Eastern jet crash that killed 132 people when the craft slammed into a mountainside appears to have been an intentional act, according to a report Tuesday. China Eastern flight MU5735 plunged from cruising altitude into the mountains of Guangxi on March 21 in China's first fatal air crash since 2010. A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft. However, Cox, a former airline pilot who flew 737s, speculates that some unusual type of mechanical issue, or perhaps inaccurate flight data, could also be the cause. Continental Details Engines Woes, and Its Not Just Cirrus Planes. The reason the passenger plane plunged out of the sky is still unknown. China's state-run media said the crash led to a fire on a. [50][51] The emergency locator transmitter (ELT) was retrieved on 26 March,[52] and on 27 March, the flight data recorder (FDR) was recovered. According to US officials familiar with the matter, data from the black box suggests that someone in the cockpit intentionally caused the plane to crash, by pushing the . The plane slammed into the ground with such force that it created a 66-foot deep hole in the ground, according to Chinese officials. Details about the crash remain sparse, but the information available seems to suggest either that the jet suffered some type of incredibly unusual flight-control problem, or that one of its pilots put the 737 into a dive. Air safety regulators and Boeing officials have not been working on service bulletins or directives stemming from the wreck, which would be issued if authorities believed theres a need to alert airlines to problems during the incident, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Sources said Chinese investigators also haven't flagged any mechanical issues. Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? Beijing A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed in southern China on Monday, aviation authorities said. A video was released to the public on the day of the accident, showing the Boeing 737 aircraft involved entering a steep dive before slamming into a hilly area. 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. The first black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was found on March 23, while the flight data recorder was found on March 27. Aviation safety expert John Cox, who works at consultancy Safety Operating Systems, says it is entirely possible that it is a deliberate act I would not take it off the table. [29][30] It was sent to Beijing for data extraction. 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. We've received your submission. Boeing 737 Max jets, which first flew in 2017, were grounded after crashes in 2018 and 2019. The crash of a Tara Air turboprop has become the third fatal incident involving the carrier since 2010. Enaire says the scheme known FlightGlobal is the global aviation communitys primary source of news, data, insight, knowledge and expertise. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it started to fall. It's still far too early to know for certain what caused China Eastern Flight 5735 to crash into hillside in southwestern China's Guangxi province on Monday, but videos emerging on social. . One device, the flight data recorder, captures information about the planes airspeed, altitude, direction up or down, pilot actions, and performance of all key systems. However, investigators have not verified the ADS-B data. What does the future of aviation look like in 2022? The FAA declined to comment about its role, deferring to the NTSB, which is the US representative to the investigation. Chinese officials leading the crash investigation have not flagged any apparent mechanical or flight problems with the plane. The CAACs initial accident report says air traffic controllers tried to call the 737s pilots during the descent but received no response. An investigation into the cause of Flight MU5735's crash is ongoing as of March 23. 0. Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2022. Although aviation safety experts caution against drawing conclusions based on incomplete information, they see a limited number of possible causes. Investigators also looked into one of the pilots' personal lives and background and believe he may have been struggling through certain issues right before the crash, ABC News has learned. But Cox cautions that emergencies do not always afford pilots time to issue mayday calls or to otherwise notify controllers of trouble. What we know about the plane The China Eastern Airlines plane was a Boeing 737-800, the most popular version of Boeing's jets now in service and the workhorse of many. [71], Within two hours of the crash 20 people claimed to have "survived" by not boarding the flight. Watch the video above for more on the aftermath of the crash That aircraft came down in Sumatra at a rate that neared 39,000ft per minute, according to Indonesias accident report. 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. Rain fell on Tuesday afternoon as excavators dug out a path to make access easier, CCTV said. Graphic News Ltd 2023. [12][13][14], Residents of the villages surrounding the crash site heard a loud explosion[15] and the final descent and crash was filmed by a security camera at the premises of a local mining company. One video showed the plane nose-diving into the ground. Enaire says the scheme known FlightGlobal is the global aviation communitys primary source of news, data, insight, knowledge and expertise. China Eastern flight MU5735 was on its way from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it dropped from its cruising altitude into the mountains of Guangxi in the southern part of China. China will lead the investigation, which will include a representative from the US crash investigator the National Transportation Safety Board, plus representatives from Boeing and CFM, the General Electric-Safran joint venture that made the engines on this plane. The planes altitude dropped from 8869m to 1333.5m in the span of three minutes, state news agency China News Service reported, citing VariFlight, a Chinese technology company that provides civil aviation data services. Early data showed the airliner plunged from 29,000 feet to 8,000 feet, leveled off and then went into a freefall. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Breaking News: A story in the Wall Street Journal reports that the crash of the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 that went down in March in a remote area of Southeast China killing all 132 aboard was caused by human input. But other Chinese airlines continued operating the type. The crash has caused shock in China, where President Xi Jinping has ordered an immediate investigation to determine the cause. One, the way the plane nosedived had experts scratching their heads as to how the plane got into the. [23] It is not equipped with the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) used on the newer 737 MAX that led to two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 and the subsequent grounding of the fleet. Three days after the China Eastern Airlines flight fell from the sky, there are more questions than answers. [38] The remains of all 132 aircraft occupants were positively identified by 29 March. [2][3][4], On 17 May, The Wall Street Journal reported a source from the US government, from officials involved in the investigation, as saying that the plane had been intentionally crashed, based on an analysis of data from the aircraft recorders. Before crashing, that aircraft also briefly recovered some altitude. At the crash site, investigators found the jets horizontal stabiliser, vertical tail, engines, wings, landing gear and parts of the cockpit, the report says. Already a member? Welcome to flightglobal.com. The 737-800 is a twin-engine, single-aisle plane commonly used for short and medium-haul flights. [61][62] News reports published by ABC News on the same day concurred with the Wall Street Journal's report of the investigating officials in the US government declaring that the aircraft had been deliberately put into a vertical dive by a person on the flight deck, also citing flight recorder data showing that the landing gear and flaps had evidently not been engaged or deployed during the aircraft's descent which would indicate the pilots attempting an emergency descent or landing. "The NTSB doesn't comment on investigations led by other authorities. [33], Rescue crews initially had difficulty accessing the site because of a forest fire which was extinguished by 17:25. Flight MU5735 was at 8800 metres on Monday afternoon when it went into a dive about an hour into its flight, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24. A domestic Chinese flight with 132 passengers plummeted into the mountains of southern China on Monday, likely leaving all. Faced with mounting pressure, officials eventually provided information on the maintenance history of the plane, the pilots' flight experience, and weather conditions at the time of the crash. What does the future of aviation look like in 2022? The aircraft was operating a service on the Kunming-Guangzhou route before suddenly plunging from 29,000ft. China Eastern responded immediately to the crash by grounding its 737-800s. Become a member and get exclusive access to articles, contests and more! Given that the aircraft was produced by an American company, the National Transport Safety Board is involved in the investigation. It is the deadliest accident involving a CRJ100/200 series, and was the deadliest in China Eastern Airlines' history at that time until the crash of Flight 5735 on 21 March 2022, which killed 132 crew and passengers. What happened? That's about all that is known for certain about the unusual. 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. 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). China Eastern officials said no evidence has been found that could confirm whether the aircraft had problems prior to the accident. Since then, the airline's safety record has drastically. Key to the investigation is recovering the so-called black boxes - they are usually painted orange for visibility, but the longtime name has stuck. ABC News' Mark Osborne contributed to this report. Sign in to continue reading, The Wall Street Journal said flight recorder data showed human input behind the nosedive and resultant crash, By Plane & Pilot Updated May 18, 2022 Save Article. 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. [5] It was first flown on 5 June 2015 and was delivered new to China Eastern Yunnan Airlines (subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines) on 25 June 2015. Sources China Eastern Black Box Points to Intentional Nosedive (WSJ) The plane that crashed on Monday was a Boeing 737-800, not the Boeing 737 Max, a newer model that was temporarily grounded worldwide following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The incident occurred near Wuzhou in Teng County, Southern China, at about 2:20 pm, less than an hour before flight MU5735 was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou. That says the Chinese are convinced that the 737-800, as a fleet type, does not have a problem.. Spanish air navigation service Enaire has started implementing an air traffic optimisation project at Madrid Barajas airport, including independent approaches to its parallel runways. A China Eastern flight carrying 132 people crashed Monday. But just over an hour into its journey, China Eastern Flight MU5735 pitched over into a sudden near-vertical dive. The steepness of the slope made the positioning of heavy equipment difficult. [42][43] As of 31 March, at least 49,117 pieces of airplane wreckage had been recovered. China Eastern flight MU5735 took off on 21 March from Kunming, heading east and climbing to a cruise altitude of 29,100ft. Back in March, we blogged about the crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735, which crashed on March 21 during a flight from Kunming to Guangzhou, killing all 132 people on board. The Boeing 737-800NG aircraft was carrying 132 people. An effort is underway to power aircraft entirely with synthetic and sustainably derived jet fuel. Flight controls were pushed to put the plane into a dive. The jet was a Boeing 737-800, a model long viewed as a reliable workhorse in the industry. Both the NTSB and Boeing also declined to comment, deferring to the CAAC. Heres what we know. The revelation has led US officials involved in the investigation to shift their focus to the actions of a pilot, but its also possible that someone else on the plane stormed into the cockpit and caused the crash, sources told the newspaper. The plane has been flying since 1998 and has an excellent safety record, said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. After this week's crash, China Eastern grounded all of its 737-800s, China's Transport Ministry said. A sudden human input to the plane's controls appears to have caused a China Eastern flight to plunge nearly vertically into the mountains of Southern China in March, killing all 132 passengers onboard, according to preliminary findings from US authorities investigating the crash. What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? The near-vertical descent of the plane, they believe, would've required intentional force. He was accompanied by the director of Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Guangxi and other officials. [18] It was the first fatal crash involving China Eastern Airlines since November 2004's Flight 5210. 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 . But Chinese searchers did indeed locate both the flight data and cockpit voice recorders shortly after the crash. 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. [75], Boeing offered its condolences to the families of the victims and said that it was in contact with China Eastern and the NTSB.[76]. It was reported that the plane was airworthy, up to date on inspections, that all personnel met requirements, that weather was fine, and that no dangerous goods were found. Welcome to flightglobal.com. [49], The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was found on 23 March with exterior damage although the internal storage device was believed to be relatively intact. All Rights Reserved 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. They cited ICAO guidelines that assign the country in which the crash occurred with responsibility for releasing information. 22 Mar 2022 Rain has forced the suspension of the search of a remote mountainside in southern China for the black boxes of the China Eastern Airlines plane that plunged from the sky on Monday. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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Both aircraft recorders were severely damaged and were sent to Washington for further investigation. By Jon Hemmerdinger2022-04-25T20:23:00+01:00. 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. In 2004, a buildup of ice on the wings of a China Eastern plane flying from Baotou in Inner Mongolia caused it to crash, killing 55. [48][29] On 29 March 2022, the NTSB announced that China had granted visas to the agency and the technical advisors from Boeing, engine manufacturer CFM and the FAA. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. Picture Twitter China Eastern flight MU5735 had taken off from Kunming and was en route to . 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. It said flight data indicated a struggle in the cockpit. If you continue on this website you must agree to our Website Terms and our Privacy Policy The instruments were subsequently sent to Washington, D.C., for data recovery. Could it have been an autopilot-induced trim runaway? Nobody can come up with a mechanical failure mode that would make the airplane behave the way it did, Goglia adds. Breaking News: A story in the Wall Street Journal reports that the crash of the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 that went down in March in a remote area of Southeast China killing all 132 aboard was caused by human input. Investigators struggling to establish cause of China Eastern Airlines crash, Follow the action from the third Test between India and Australia in Delhi in our live blog, Follow the live scorebetween Parramatta and Melbourne as the new NRL season begins. The FAA did not ground the planes. Suddenly, about 1h after taking off, it dived steeply, at one point descending at more than 30,000ft per minute, according to publicly available ADS-B data from aircraft tracking site Flightradar24.com. Ice accumulation on the wings caused the plane to lose its lift, causing the crash. [26] Liu Ning, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Guangxi, visited the crash site and ordered an "all-out" search and rescue operation. It does sound as though the airplane was sound. The crash caused a fire on the mountains, and the jet involved in the accident was a Boeing 737 aircraft. A Boeing 737 jet crashed into a hillside in Southern China on March 21, killing 132 people on board. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. [5][10][11], Some information channels such as Kunming Changshui International Airport and Umetrip temporarily showed that flight had arrived due to not registering the flight's loss of contact. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is in the midst of a three-day visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping . Continental Details Engines Woes, and pilots could not regain control 42 ] 43... Certain about the cookies we use here ] [ 43 ] as March. Incomplete information, they believe, would 've required intentional force does sound though! After takeoff, and the crew were qualified, and its not Just Planes... Crashing, that aircraft also briefly recovered some altitude a Tara Air has... Aircraft occupants were positively identified by 29 March found china eastern crash cause could confirm the. Were qualified, and its not Just Cirrus Planes in which the crash has caused shock in China where... 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