A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane with 132 people on board crashed in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. The plane crashed in the city of Wuzhou, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of China, causing a forest fire, China Central Television (CCTV) reported. According to CCTV, search and rescue operations are underway. The plane crashed in the mountains causing a mountain fire on a domestic flight with an unknown number of casualties, following a sudden descent from cruising altitude, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. China Eastern is one of China’s three major air carriers.
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 approach to Yichun airport.
The safety record of China’s airline industry has been among the best in the world over the past decade. The jet was a six-year-old Boeing 737-800NG aircraft and was carrying 132 people. It had 123 passengers and nine crew on board. The People’s Daily quoted a provincial firefighting department official as saying there was no sign of life among the scattered debris. Following the accident, videos and pictures purporting to come from the scene started circulating on social media showing smoke billowing from a hillside and wreckage on the ground.
Following the crash, China Eastern Airlines has grounded all of its Boeing 737-800 flights. “Shocked” over the plane crash, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered a probe, news agency AFP reported, quoting state media. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.
The plane crashed in the rural countryside near Wuzhou city, Guangxi region and “caused a mountain fire”, Chinese state media CCTV said. One villager told a local news site that the plane involved in the crash had “completely fallen apart” and he had seen nearby forest areas destroyed by a fire caused when the plane crashed onto the mountainside. The aircraft involved wasn’t a new-generation Boeing Max jet, the model involved in previous fatal crashes. The re-engined Max narrow-body was grounded in March 2019 in the wake of fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. That particular make of plane still hasn’t returned to commercial service in China. The China Eastern flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou departed at 1.11 pm local time (0511 GMT), FlightRadar24 data showed. The flight-tracking ended at 2.22 pm local time (0622 GMT) at an altitude of 3,225 feet with a speed of 376 knots. It had been due to land in Guangzhou, on the east coast, at 3:05 p.m. (0705 GMT). The website of China Eastern Airlines was later presented in black and white, which airlines do in response to a crash as a sign of respect for the assumed victims. Earlier, according to news portal The Paper, a staff member at Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport said that flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou has not arrived at its destined time, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Shares of Boeing fell 6.8% to $179.97 in pre-market U.S. trading. Stock in Shanghai-based China Eastern fell as much as 6.4% in late trading in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, a report from New Delhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the passenger plane crash in China’s Guangxi on Monday. PM Modi tweeted, “Deeply shocked and saddened to learn about the crash of the passenger flight MU5735 with 132 on board in China’s Guangxi. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the crash and their family members.”
Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, thanked Prime Minister Modi for offering prayers and sympathy over the passenger plane crash in China’s Guangxi on Monday. Taking to Twitter, the Chinese envoy said: “Thanks to Prime Minister @narendramodi and Indian friends for your prayers and sympathy for the loss in the air crash. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out search & rescue efforts & proper settlement of aftermath. Mourn for the victims, deep condolences to their families.”
Following the Chinese plane crash, India’s aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday said the surveillance over the total fleet of Boeing 737 has been enhanced. “Flight safety is a serious business. We are closely studying the situation and in the interim, we are mounting enhanced surveillance on our 737 fleet,” said DGCA chief Arun Kumar. Three Indian carriers— SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express—have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets.