China- Chinese airliner, Boeing 737, carrying 132 people crashes in southern China, 21 March 2022

[dotr]

China plane crash: China Eastern Airlines jet carrying 132 people crashes in southern China - CNN
''(CNN)A China Eastern Airlines jetliner carrying 132 people crashed in the mountains in southern China's Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, according to China's Civil Aviation Administration.

The Boeing 737 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou. On board were 123 passengers and nine crew members, CAAC said in a statement posted online.
China Eastern Airlines later confirmed those details and the number of people on board the aircraft at the time of the crash.


"China Eastern Airlines has activated the emergency mechanism, dispatched a working group to the scene, and opened a special line for emergency assistance to family members," the airline continued in a statement on its Weibo account.''

Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed the country's emergency services to "organize a search and rescue" operation and "identify the causes of the accident," state media reported.

 

[MrsWatson]

Thanks for starting a thread, @dotr.

Daily Mail has purported video of the actual crash. Trigger warning, and very scary.

Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 133 crashes in rural China | Daily Mail Online

 

[dotr]

Boeing 737 carrying 132 people crashes in southern China, officials say | CBC News
''People's Daily reports that 117 rescuers have already arrived at the crash site. Guangxi fire department is organizing 650 rescuers who are heading to the site from three directions.

CCTV reports that China Eastern Airlines set up nine teams with focuses like aircraft disposal, accident investigation and family assistance, and they are heading to the site. The CAAC said it had sent a team of officials, and the Guangxi fire service said work was underway to control a mountainside blaze ignited by the crash.''

''Satellite data from NASA showed a massive fire just in the area of where the plane went down at the time of the crash.

Calls to China Eastern offices were not immediately answered. State media said local police first received calls from villagers alerting them about the crash around 2:30 p.m. local time. Guangxi provincial emergency management department said contact with the plane was lost at 2:15 p.m. local time.

Chicago-based Boeing Co. said it was aware of the initial reports of the crash and was "working to gather more information." Boeing stock dropped over eight per cent in pre-market trading early Monday.''

 

[Sarahlou]

That's awful. How terrifying for everyone on that plane

 

[Elley Mae]

China Eastern plane carrying 132 people crashes, no sign of life among debris: Report

China Eastern plane carrying 132 people crashes, no sign of life among debris: Report

The flight, No. 5735, had been traveling at around 30,000 feet when the plane entered a deep dive at its cruising altitude speed of 523 mph, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The data suggests the plane crashed within a minute and a half of whatever went wrong.

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China plane crash - live: ‘No signs of life’ as flight carrying 132 people crashes in Guangxi province

‘No signs of life’ as flight carrying 132 people crashes in Guangxi - follow live

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I have to say that at an altitude of 29,000 ft and traveling at 523 mph into a deep dive to the ground Iwould not have added “no signs of life”.

That is obvious without looking.

Jmo

Very Very sad.

 

[Niner]

Whoa! That video of the plane headed straight down!!

Those poor people! Wondering if it was a suicide mission for one of the pilots? JMO of course!

 

[dotr]

China Eastern Airlines crash – Shocking moment Boeing 737 with 132 on board nosedives vertically into mountain at 350mph (thesun.co.uk)

''THIS is the shocking moment a passenger plane carrying 132 nosedives vertically into a mountain at 400mph. Horrifying footage shows the moment the Boeing 737 plummets to the ground after falling from 29,100ft in a minute and a half. The passenger jet flown by China Eastern Airlines came down in Guangxi, China, on Monday, state media said.''

 

[drama_farmer]

With that attitude and speed, the G forces would have been immense, causing parts of the airframe to break off. In the The Sun video on YouTube, there's footage of what looks to be part of a control surface (ailerons/flaps or horizontal stabilizer) on the ground( not burned and not in a million pieces) that landed quite a distance away.

The investigation will help to confirm whether those ripped off parts are a result of the crash, or if there was a mechanical or control failure that put the plane into a dive that was unrecoverable.

The G forces are a blessing in disguise for the passengers. I'm hoping that they were all unconscious shortly after the nosedive began.
Imo

 

[gitana1]

Whoa! That video of the plane headed straight down!!

Those poor people! Wondering if it was a suicide mission for one of the pilots? JMO of course!

That was my first question. Because isn't it rare for a plane to nosedive like that if there is a mechanical issue? Does anyone know?

 

[gitana1]

I guess I am not the only one wondering how that could have possibly happened:

"In this case, there is a striking consensus that something very unusual happened that cannot directly relate to previous disasters involving this version of the 737, one of the most flown jets in the world, which preceded the 737-MAX version that was grounded for nearly two years after two catastrophic accidents....
One aerospace engineer, commenting on the Aviation Herald site, says, “It is not normal for a plane to nose dive into the ground, it rules out a lot of failures.” Another says, “To those who can’t think of any reason… there are a lot. Some repeats from things that already happened, perhaps something that has never happened before. Aviation is like that.”"
How Could One of the World’s Favorite Jets Just Plunge to Earth Like a Ballistic Missile?

 

[j_in_c]

That was my first question. Because isn't it rare for a plane to nosedive like that if there is a mechanical issue? Does anyone know?

I have no knowledge, but reading around the web, most folks who do seem to know what they are talking about are withholding judgement until there are more facts made available. Nosedives are not normally associated with mechanical failure, but it could still be a series of events, like sensors giving bad data plus pilot vertigo due to no visibility plus ???. Anyhow, I have seen viable hypotheses out there that don't involve deliberate malice so probably best not to speculate and cause more hurt until there is more detailed information made available.

 

[PrairieWind]

Wow, that just made me sick to watch that. I can't imagine what it must have been like for those poor people. What could have caused that? I hope the black boxes survived.

 

[Happygo]

A pilot being interviewed on world channel just now said that planes are much more stable and it is difficult to make a plane nosedive - said that if pilots had let go of everything plane wouldn't stay in nosedive. He added it's doubtful any blackbox or info will be recovered from the plane. So sad!

 

[TGIRecovered]

By the looks of the crash site, nothing survived intact. No engines, no seats, no bodies. I’m struggling to imagine the force it takes to turn the metal of a plane engine to vapor.

 

[abanddb123]

I'm trying to Google information about the force those people had to go through. Someone help me find out if those people were unconscious after it started happening. I can't even think about it.

 

[whitelilac]

When there is major aircraft crash, I always turn to the pilots' forum. I'm following, nothing solid so far but interesting discussion.
And in fact there are pieces which survived, e.g. wing parts that appear to have separated before impact.

Also, it appears there was a recovery effort, obviously unsuccessful.
So very sad for all onboard, and their families.
China Eastern 737-800 MU5735 incident - PPRuNe Forums

 

[gitana1]

When there is major aircraft crash, I always turn to the pilots' forum. I'm following, nothing solid so far but interesting discussion.
And in fact there are pieces which survived, e.g. wing parts that appear to have separated before impact.

Also, it appears there was a recovery effort, obviously unsuccessful.
So very sad for all onboard, and their families.
China Eastern 737-800 MU5735 incident - PPRuNe Forums

Smart to go there to look!

 

[airportwoman]

I heard on NBC News tonight that the plane descended from cruising altitude to about 7,000 feet, where it briefly stabilized, and then tipped over and fell straight to the ground.

I, too hope none of the passengers on that plane knew what was happening to them.

 

[Niner]

Don't recall if this was posted yet. Picture on right shows the dive.



from article at:
Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 133 crashes in rural China | Daily Mail Online

 

[dotr]

March 22 2022
What we know so far about the China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crash | CP24.com
''The cause is unknown. Flight 5735 was at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) on Monday afternoon when it went into a dive about an hour into its flight, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.

The plane plunged to 7,400 feet (2,200 meters) before regaining about 1,200 feet (360 meters), then dived again. It crashed into the side of a mountain in a remote, forested area outside the city of Wuzhou.

State media and Chinese regulators gave no indication the pilot reported trouble or other information that might shed light on the cause of the disaster. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it started to fall.

Rescue workers planned to use drones in the search for the plane's black boxes, which should contain information from instruments and sound from the cockpit.

Confirming the cause of a plane crash sometimes takes months or years due to the need to gather badly damaged debris and examine specialized technical factors.''

rbbm.
State media: No survivors found in crash of Chinese airliner | CP24.com
''KUNMING, China (AP) -- Mud-stained wallets. Bank cards. Official identity cards. Poignant reminders of 132 lives presumed lost were lined up by rescue workers scouring a remote Chinese mountainside Tuesday for the wreckage of a China Eastern flight that one day earlier inexplicably fell from the sky and burst into a huge fireball.

No survivors have been found among the 123 passengers and nine crew members. Video clips posted by China's state media show small pieces of the Boeing 737-800 plane scattered over a wide forested area, some in green fields, others in burnt-out patches with raw earth exposed after fires burned in the trees. Each piece of debris has a number next to it, the larger ones marked off by police tape.

As family members gathered at the destination and departure airports, what caused the plane to drop out of the sky shortly before it would have begun its descent to the southern China metropolis of Guangzhou remained a mystery. The search for the black boxes, which hold the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, would be difficult, the official Xinhua News Agency said, and involve drones and manual searching.''

''The plane was about an hour into its flight, at an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,840 meters), when it entered a steep, fast dive around 2:20 p.m., according to data from FlightRadar24.com. The plane plunged to 7,400 feet before briefly regaining about 1,200 feet in altitude, then dove again. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after starting to dive.''