A day of mourning for China, which is currently experiencing one of the biggest air tragedies since the crash of China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737.
The aircraft with 123 passengers and nine-member crew fell from 30,000 feet vertically to the ground and crashed. According to initial estimates, the aircraft suffered a “catastrophic loss of control event” and at a speed of 350 miles per hour fell vertically to the ground, in just a few minutes.
The plane crashed into a hillside near Wuzhou, in China’s southern Guangxi province, causing a forest fire, visible even from NASA satellite images from space.
A rescue official was quoted as saying that the plane had completely disintegrated, while the fire that broke out burned bamboo and trees.
Flight safety experts note in the Guardian that the way in which the Chinese plane crashed is reminiscent of the case of the tragedy of Germanwings flight in 2015: the fall started without sending a distress signal and without losing its position from the radars.
The Germanwings plane was deliberately crashed by the pilot himself who killed another 149 people.
David Learmount, publishing consultant at Flightglobal, told the Guardian: “We have no direct evidence, but we can observe that at this point, when we observed the disappearance of the Germanwings flight, the two profiles are very similar, so it is worrying.” .
Other aviation experts told the Daily Mail that it may have been “an incident of loss of control, possibly after the aircraft was immobilized at high altitude” or a sensor fault in the cockpit.
The plane, with flight number MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou, is believed to be a Boeing 737-89P, which does not belong to the MAX series that has been experiencing problems in recent years.
Arthur Rowe, an associate professor at Cranfield University’s Center for Turbine Performance and Functionality, told the Daily Mail: As usual there are many possible causes. Blocked control surfaces that do not respond, especially in the tail, are one of them. An inappropriate combination of autopilot settings is another.
There is also possible sabotagealthough this is rather unlikely on a domestic flight to China, given the restrictions for Covid. “It is unlikely to be related to the engine, as aircraft can fly perfectly without a running engine – obviously for a limited time.”
The last serious plane crash in China occurred in August 2010, when its flight Henan Airlines crashed in the northeast of the country killing 40 people.
The heaviest record belongs to the 1994 crash of a Tupolev 154 China Northwest Airlines shortly after taking off from Xi’an in northern China, resulting in the death of 160 passengers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was “shocked” by the accident, state-run Chinese state television CCTV reported. And in an unusual heated reaction, the strongman from Beijing demanded that the causes of the crash be identified as soon as possible.
Flight MU5735 had taken off at 13.00 local time from Kunming in the direction of Canton, at a distance of 1,300 kilometers. The plane was torn to pieces after crashing into a hillside, a local resident said.
According to FlightRadar24, the aircraft lost 26,000 feet (7,925 meters) in 3 minutes before disappearing from radar at 14.22 local time.
Watch the shocking video from the moment the Chinese Boeing 737 plane crashed and crashed in Guangxi Province in China.
Videos are circulating on social media that allegedly show the crash from afar, the fire after and the first debris.
According to local media, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 took off at 13.00 local time from Kunming to Canton, at a distance of 1,300 kilometers.
The plane was torn to pieces after crashing into a hillside, a local resident said.
According to the FlightRadar24 website, the aircraft lost 26,000 feet (7,925 m) in 3 minutes before disappearing from radar at 14.22 local time.
A blow to Boeing
Air crashes are relatively rare in China, where air transport have developed significantly in recent decades and where security measures are strict.
Today’s disaster is new hard blow for Boeing in China.
In March 2019, China was the first country in the world to order its airlines to suspend 737 MAX flights for safety reasons.
The measure was taken after two accidents with 737 MAX abroad, with 346 dead.
Three years later, the Chinese regulator finally lifted the Boeing 737 MAX flight ban last December. It is not known if these aircraft have resumed commercial flights to China.
The decision to lift the ban was very important for tBoeing, as China is an important market for the company.
The Chinese regulator had set a condition for the return of the 737 MAX to the Chinese skies to make technical modifications to guarantee flight safety.
China was the last major country to lift the 737 MAX flight ban.
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