China Boeing 737 crash: Grim search as rescue teams comb hillside
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Loading... - Bridget Cook
- 22 Mar 2022
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Rescuers in China are scouring heavily forested slopes in southern China where a China Eastern Airlines crashed and exploded in flames, as state media reported no survivors had been found.
Some 132 people, including nine crew, were on flight MU5735 when it crashed in the mountains of southern Guangxi on a flight from Kunming to Guangzhou.
The Boeing 737-800 crash is the first involving a commercial aircraft in China since 2010.
Debris was strewn across mountain slopes with the official Xinhua news agency reporting that the crash had created a deep pit in the mountainside. Other outlets reported that the burned remains of identity cards, purses, and wallets had been seen.
“Wreckage of the plane was found at the scene, but up until now, none of those aboard the plane with whom contact was lost have been found,” state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The plane was flying at a cruising altitude when it suddenly plunged from the sky.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet (8,870 metres) to 7,850 feet (2,393 metres) in just over a minute.
After a brief upswing, it then plunged to 3,225 feet (982 metres), the tracker said.
Chinese media carried brief highway video footage from a vehicle’s dashcam showing a jet diving to the ground behind trees at an angle of about 35 degrees off vertical. The footage could not immediately be verified.
“The plane fell vertically from the sky,” state-run Beijing Youth Daily quoted a resident as saying.
“Although I was far away, I could still see that it was a plane. The plane did not emit smoke during the fall. It fell into the mountains and started a fire.”
‘Complex emotions’
State media have described the situation as appearing “grim” with hundreds of firefighters and paramilitary forces, some with dogs, deployed to the scene. Local villagers also rushed to help after seeing the flames.
Describing the difficult terrain, state media said the crash site was hemmed in by mountains on three sides, with access provided by a single, tiny path. Rain is forecast for the area this week.
The last crash of a commercial aircraft in mainland China was in 2010, when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on approach to Yichun airport in low visibility, killing 44 of 96 people on board. Read More…
