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. 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. And air regulators and Boeing istelf are not working on any new safety directives or warnings related to the crash. 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. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? [38] The remains of all 132 aircraft occupants were positively identified by 29 March. The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit, one individual told the Journal. The findings come in part from information recovered from the Boeing 737 flight data recorder, known as a black box, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the US investigation. Boeing has expressed dismay with Chinas Big Three carriers placing an order for 292 A320neo family jets on 1 July. "9P" is the, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, List of accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737, "China Eastern crash probe looks into crew actions: Report", "Black Box Data Reportedly Suggest China Eastern Jet Crash Was Intentional", "China Eastern Plane Crash Data Suggest Intentional Dive, WSJ Says", "Flight data from China Eastern jet points to intentional nosedive -WSJ", "Flight history for China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735", "China Eastern Boeing 737 Jet Crashes With More Than 130 on Board", "China Eastern Airlines flight 5735 crashes en route to Guangzhou", "Chinese airliner carrying 132 people crashes", "MU5735", "MU5735133257", "Here's Everything We Know About the China Plane Crash So Far", "Video reportedly shows aftermath of passenger plane crash in China", "No survivors found in China Eastern plane crash, state media says", "Chinese Plane Crash Follows Rapid Growth at Airline Without Safety Incidents", "China Eastern Crash Is Rare Disaster for State-Run Airlines", "B-1791 China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-89P(WL)", "Live Flight Tracker Real-Time Flight Tracker Map", "Previous crashes may give clues to China jet's mystery plunge", "China Eastern: Plane carrying 132 people crashes in Guangxi hills", "What We Know About the Crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735", "Chinese Boeing jet crashes in mountains with 132 on board, no sign of survivors", "A Black Box From China Eastern Airlines Plane Crash Is Found", "Black box from crashed China Eastern plane found in 'severely damaged' condition", "At Controls of Crashed China Eastern Jet: One of Country's First Commercial Pilots", "Passenger plane crashes in southern China", "China Eastern Airlines passenger jet crashes with 132 people on board", "China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735: debris and belongings recovered but search for survivors continues", "Search at China plane crash site suspended amid rain and landslide fears", "China examines cockpit voice recorder from crashed airliner", "Pieces fell off China crash plane in mid-air", "One black box from China Eastern plane found, along with some human remains", "China confirms all on board China Eastern plane died in crash", "All 132 victims of China Eastern Airlines crash identified through DNA testing", "Search finds 49,000 pieces of plane in China Eastern crash", "Boeing 737 passenger jet crashes in China with 132 people on board", "US names investigator as representative to China Boeing 737800 crash probe", "China finds first black box from crashed jet, U.S. discussing quarantine for investigators", "US officials can travel to China to aid crash investigation", "Black box found from crashed China Eastern Jet Chinese aviation regulator", "China found the plane's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT)", "Second 'black box' found in China Eastern plane crash", "U.S. experts analyzing black boxes from China Eastern Boeing 737 that nose-dived into mountainside killing 132", "Voice recorder in Chinese crash comes to D.C. as U.S. investigators head to China", "China Eastern crash: What do we know so far? Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? Investigators have so far not found any. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Data recovered from black box suggests human input caused crash, not mechanical problem, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Chinese officials leading the crash investigation have not flagged any apparent mechanical or flight problems with the plane. A 737 crashed in China. 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. [36][37] Workers used hand equipment, detection dogs and UAVs to search for the flight recorders and human remains, finding one flight recorder on 23 March. Pieces of the crashed plane's wreckage found at the crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang. Heres what we know. Theoretically, I can make that case, Cox says. The reason the passenger plane plunged out of the sky is still unknown. The crash of China Eastern Flight 5735 posed a fresh challenge for aviation authorities in the country, which has maintained a strong flight-safety record in recent years. With the cause of the crash unknown, some Chinese social media users turned to conspiracy theories and suspected the involvement of the United States in the accident. "Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735," a Boeing . 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. 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. Americas owner-flown aircraft enthusiasts and active-pilot resource, delivered to your inbox! [19][20], The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-89P[a] (737NG or 737 Next Generation) with the registration B-1791 and serial number 41474. The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit, says an anonymous source quoted by the newspaper. Parts of the China Eastern jet that went down in the country's first commercial crash since 2010. The crash site is surrounded on three sides by mountains and is accessible only onfoot and by motorcycle on a steep dirt road in the semitropical Guangxi region, famed for some of China's most spectacular scenery. File image. Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? After officials initially failed to answer basic questions about the plane and its pilots, they were accused by online commentators of "rainbow farts," an idiom for excessive praise. The jet was a Boeing 737-800, a model long viewed as a reliable workhorse in the industry. Before that happens, the industry needs to agree on a technical definition of sustainable aviation fuel. [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. 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. Boeing has delivered more than 5100 of them over the past 24 years, and China is the biggest market, with nearly 1200, according to aviation consultant IBA. [48] COVID-19 quarantine regulations may hamper access of U.S. investigators to mainland China. This led the investigation toward the pilot or the possibility of a cockpit breach. But other Chinese airlines continued operating the type. But just over an hour into its journey, China Eastern Flight MU5735 pitched over into a sudden near-vertical dive. 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 . 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. Given the crash sites remoteness and inaccessibility, combined with the destructive high-velocity impact, the search for the flight recorders was beyond challenging. 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. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. Cancellation rates in China were the highest of 2022. China Eastern flight MU5735 took off on 21 March from Kunming, heading east and climbing to a cruise altitude of 29,100ft. [60], On 20 April, CAAC released a preliminary report regarding the accident, stating that "there was no abnormality in the radio communication and control command between the crew and the air traffic control department before deviating from the cruise altitude." [21][22], The 737-800 has a solid safety record, with 11 previous fatal accidents (the first in September 2006) out of more than 7,000 planes delivered since 1997. 4 engine, while cruising at 41,000 ft (12,500 m). China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. The health and financial status of the pilots were in good shape, the airline told the Wall Street Journal. It simply nosed over and came down damn near vertically, says Goglia. China's last major airline crash was in 2010, when an Embraer ERJ-190LR operated by Henan Airlines crashed while trying to land on a foggy runway, catching fire and killing 44 of the 96 people. Boeing, however, has long since addressed that problem, without any further incidents. The accident happened on November 13 last year, leaving one dead. China Airlines Flight 006 (callsign "Dynasty 006") was a daily non-stop flight from Taipei to Los Angeles International Airport. But the details available even before the Journals report had already given rise to pilot suicide as a leading theory among accident analysts not involved in the investigation. But Chinese searchers did indeed locate both the flight data and cockpit voice recorders shortly after the crash. 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. The Eastern Airlines jet crashed into a mountain after a steep dive. The investigation is the latest probe into safety on a Boeing jet after a faulty flight control system led to multiple fatal crashes aboard the Boeing 737 MAX, the successor to the 737-800. It crashed into the side of a mountain in a remote, forested area outside the city of Wuzhou. Key to the investigation is recovering the so-called black boxes - they are usually painted orange for visibility, but the longtime name has stuck. Now she believes she's being penalised, NRL live: Parramatta clashes with Melbourne Storm as 2023 season kicks off, New Easter Island Moai statue discovered in volcano crater, Easton Wood backs AFL's player opt-out clause for gambling advertising, Inquest into 75-year-old's flood death hears of desperate last moments, Thirty-four balls and just 29 minutes: Here's how Australia's latest Test batting collapse unfolded. Some frames of that grainy video appear to show parts of the airplane being shed in the dive. On 19 February 1985, the Boeing 747SP operating the flight was involved in an aircraft upset accident, following the failure of the No. [54] Concurrently, on April 1, a team of NTSB investigators left the United States for China. The numbers arent reasonable, says Cox. The China Eastern flight was aboard a Boeing model 737-800, a widely used plane with one of the best safety records in commercial aviation. Local authorities dispatched 450 firefighters to the scene of the accident. 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. [56] On 24 March, a piece of the jet was discovered about 10km (6mi) from the crash site, initially giving weight to the theory of a mid-air breakup. Flight data indicates a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed in March was intentionally put into a nose-dive, according to US media reports. Given that the aircraft was produced by an American company, the National Transport Safety Board is involved in the investigation. That kind of vertical dive, without a radio call of any kind from the flightcrew, could clearly indicate a human activity to make that happen, says aviation safety consultant and former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia. Chilling eyewitness accounts of passenger plane that plunged into mountains with 132 on board, Expert reveals very unusual aspect in deadly plane crash. China's state-run media said the crash led to a fire on a. But Cox cautions that emergencies do not always afford pilots time to issue mayday calls or to otherwise notify controllers of trouble. [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. A China Eastern passenger jet crashed into the mountains on Monday, March 21, with 132 passengers on board. 167 Recovery workers paused for a moment of silence on March 27 for victims of the. [40], Wet weather and the challenging accessibility of the crash site hampered the recovery process. Boeing 737 Max jets, which first flew in 2017, were grounded after crashes in 2018 and 2019. Since then, the airline's safety record has drastically. Enaire says the scheme known FlightGlobal is the global aviation communitys primary source of news, data, insight, knowledge and expertise. The jet banked steeply and the pilots were unable to recover. The jet was airworthy and the crew were qualified, and investigators have no evidence the 737 was carrying dangerous cargo. Even the size of the debris field is important - when wreckage is spread over a very large area, it could indicate the plane was breaking up before hitting the ground. That kind of vertical dive, without a radio call of any kind from the flightcrew, could clearly indicate a human activity to make that happen, aviation safety consultant and former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia told FlightGlobal in April. No survivors were found at the crash site, and the planes black box was recovered several feet underground. 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. China Eastern Airlines has grounded all its 737-800s. But events involving such extreme descent rates do not always result from deliberate pilot action. [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. Spanish air navigation service Enaire has started implementing an air traffic optimisation project at Madrid Barajas airport, including independent approaches to its parallel runways. [32] Firefighters were dispatched by the Wuzhou Fire and Rescue Department at 15:05 CST. A domestic Chinese flight with 132 passengers plummeted into the mountains of southern China on Monday, likely leaving all. The crash killed all 132 people onboard while flight 5735 was flying between Kunming and Guangzhou. Commentary: Chinese Spy Balloon Hysteria or Not? 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. Beijing is expected to submit an early investigation report on Wednesday into last month's China Eastern Airlines crash, when flight MU5735 descended sharply and slammed into a southern Chinese . What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation? The crash occurred after a 25-minute flight that FlightAware, an air traffic database, tracked from the Grand Canyon near Kingman, Arizona, to the Boulder City airport. The China Eastern Airlines plane crash in March 2022 shook the world for various reasons. [47] United States Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said on 23 March that Chinese authorities had invited the NTSB to take part in the investigation. [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]. All rights reserved. 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. On March 1, an investigation report on the fatal Model Y crash in Chaozhou, eastern Guangdong province, was released. The tragic crash caused a mountain fire and no survivors were found by the . SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express have the aircraft in their fleets. The recovery of the cockpit voice recorder is a major breakthrough and the search for the flight data recorder continues. 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. The steepness of the slope made the positioning of heavy equipment difficult. Already a member? The CAAC published a preliminary report on April 20, 30 days after the accident. Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2022. [29][30] It was sent to Beijing for data extraction. [69] Nearly 89 percent of all China Eastern flights were cancelled on 22 March. What happened? In April, the CAAC issued a brief statement about the investigation, stating little more than that work to recover and analyse data from the recorders was underway, and that the devices had suffered severe damage. This was especially so after security cam video of the plane in a steep nosedive emerged. Nobody can come up with a mechanical failure mode that would make the airplane behave the way it did, Goglia adds. 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