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After flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, it fell from the sky in about an hour. After traveling at an altitude of 29,000 feet [29,100 m], it plummeted to about 20,000 feet [7,000 m], climbed slightly, then sank again and collided with a distant bamboo grove in the mountains near Wuzhou. According to flight-tracking data, the fall took two minutes.
Witnesses told the Beijing Youth Daily that there was no smoke from the plane. It fell from the mountain and ignited, and smoke was rising. Villagers reported explosions and raging fires. Some locals rushed to the scene before hundreds of fire and rescue workers – reportedly local militia groups – walked the final distance through a dirt road.
Officials have not released the death toll, but state media reported there were no signs of survivors. Footage from the crash site showed a deep scar on the Earth, with illegible debris scattered across the area. A large fragment shows part of the China Eastern brand logo.
The flight carried 132 people, including nine crew members. It is said that an ID card and a wallet were found at the scene, but the black box of the airplane was not found, and the cause of the crash is unknown. However, as families gathered at the plane’s destinations, Guangdong Airport and the offices of airlines in Yunnan, details about who was on board began to be revealed. According to local reports, a group of six was heading to Guangzhou for a funeral.
Another man, surnamed Yan, told Reuters there was a 29-year-old colleague on the plane who was left to inform their mother. “When she picked up the phone, she choked up,” Yan said, adding that he was “heartbroken” when he heard the news today. Chinese media outlet The Paper reported that another man, known as Liu Li, was on his way from Kunming to Guangzhou to reunite with his family when they bought him a plane ticket. Another report described a young woman on her way to meet her fiancé.
“We couldn’t contact her,” her brother said. “She should arrive in Guangzhou within two hours. Her fiancé is waiting for her at Guangzhou Airport, and he can’t find her and he can’t find her.” Initial reports said there were 133 people on board, a figure that was later corrected after it was discovered that a passenger had canceled the flight before boarding.
Authorities have established a large presence near the crash site, with multiple first-aid teams, trauma specialists, psychologists, government emergency coordinators, and the media. State media reports from the scene showed villagers on motorcycles carrying rescue workers along a mountain road to the scene. The crash, China’s worst air disaster in at least a decade, comes after the government recently praised the industry’s vastly improved safety record. The plane flying route MU5735 was not a Boeing 737 Max, which was grounded following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, but a Boeing 737-800, one of the most common airliners in the world. China Eastern Airlines has grounded all of the aircraft in its fleet as the investigation continues.
In a statement, Boeing said, “I am thinking of the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines flight MU 5735.CCTV footage from a nearby mine shared online as news of the world and confirmed by Jimu News channels and The WallStreet Journal, claims to capture the plane’s terrifyingly steep final descent, with a vertical incline of just 35 degrees.
Aviation experts in the UK say there could be multiple causes for the crash until further evidence emerges. Air accident investigator Tony Cable said the possibilities included a “loss of control event” or a high-altitude stall. Crashes during flight cruises are rare.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for a comprehensive response and investigation. Hu Xijin, a former editor of the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, called on the company to keep people updated, a possible reference to public outrage and eventual arrests after officials covered up the true death toll from last year’s Henan floods. “Definitely don’t wait until the public will not be notified until the investigation is officially concluded,” he said.
The airline said there were no foreigners among the passengers. Authorities in Taiwan — claimed by China as a province and opposed to its status as an independent nation — are working to determine if any citizens were on board. It added that searches of the data and voice recorders or “black boxes” of the Boeing 737-800 airliner, the first commercial airliner to crash in China since 2010, will be conducted in a grid fashion.
Si, a 64-year-old villager near the crash site who declined to give his name, told Reuters he heard a “bang, bang” during the crash. “It was like thunder,” he said. State television showed footage of the plane’s wreckage scattered among fire-scorched trees. Burnt ID cards and the remains of a wallet were also seen. Rain is expected in the area this week, which could further hinder search and recovery efforts.
Police set up checkpoints in Lucun, near the scene, barring journalists from entering. Several people gathered nearby for a small Buddhist ceremony to pray for the victims. The last time a commercial airliner crashed in China was in 2010, when an Embraer E-190 regional jet of Henan Airlines crashed, killing 44 of the 96 people on board.
On Monday night, Vice Premier Liu He stressed the highest level of concern, traveling to Guangxi to oversee search and rescue operations. An officer of the same level was also dispatched to the scene of the crash in northeast China in 2010. The disaster comes as Boeing is trying to recover from several crises, notably the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on air travel and safety concerns for its 737 Max models after two fatal crashes.
