Explainer: What is Known About the Crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735

Police officers stand guard at the entrance to a village near the site of a plane crash in Tengxian county, Wuzhou city, in Guangxi Province on March 21, 2022.-/AFP via Getty Images

A China Eastern Airlines jet carrying 132 people crashed into the mountains of southeast China on the afternoon of March 21. The reason for the nosedive of the six-year-old Boeing 737-800 is baffling aviation experts.

What Caused the Plane to Crash

So far, the cause is unknown, but nothing has been ruled out.

“We are unable to make a clear judgment about the cause of the accident with the information available now,” Zhu Tao, Director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said at a press conference on March 22.

Recovering the plane’s flight-data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, commonly known as black boxes, are considered key to figuring out what caused the crash. They’re typically located in the tail area, where they’re less likely to be damaged in a crash.

Searchers have so far found one black box, that Chinese aviation authorities said is “highly likely” the cockpit voice recorder. The casing is severely damaged and the box will be sent to Beijing for decoding and analysis.

Rescuers are trying to find the second box, but poor weather and steep terrain hampered search efforts.

Fragments of wreckage were scattered in a heavily wooded area near the city of Wuzhou, in southwestern Guangxi Province. The crash site is surrounded on three sides by mountains and accessible only by foot or motorcycle on a steep dirt road. Heavy rain temporarily suspended rescue operations Wednesday.

Local residents told The Epoch Times on Monday that the jet was completely disintegrated.

Citing severe damage, Zhu said the investigation was “very challenging.”

A piece of wreckage of the China Eastern's flight MU5735 after it crashed on the mountain in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Province on March 21, 2022. Xinhua via AP

What’s Known About the Passengers

The plane was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed.

Only Chinese nationals were on board, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The search for survivors continues, but there has been no word of anyone found alive.

Remains of letters, identity cards, and wallets were among the possessions rescuers recovered at the crash site. Search crews found fragments of human remains on Wednesday.

All three pilots on the flight were in good health, Sun Shiying, president of China Eastern’s branch in Yunnan Province, said on March 23.

If everyone on board is confirmed dead, the accident would be the worst air disaster in China in over a decade.

Relatives of passengers leave the village closest to the crash site of China Eastern flight MU5375 in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province on March 23, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

Events During the Crash

China Eastern flight 5735 crashed about an hour into its journey from Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan Province, to Guangzhou, an industrial center of Guangdong Province.

The plane was cruising at an altitude of 29,000 feet when it suddenly went into a near-vertical dive at 2:20 p.m. local time, according to FlightRadar24’s data.

Flight data shows it lost more than 20,000 feet in one minute and briefly regained altitude at about 8,000 feet before resuming its nose dive.

The plane’s last tracked altitude on FlightRadar24 was 3,225 feet at 2:22 p.m. local time. CAAC said its radar signal disappeared at 2:23 p.m. local time.

Air traffic controllers were unable to contact the crew in the final moments before the crash, a senior official of CAAC said at Tuesday’s news conference.

The flight’s final seconds were captured by a local camera, and state-backed news outlet The Paper said it verified the video was shot by a nearby mining company.

Residents near the crash site on Monday afternoon describe hearing a boom. The plane caught fire before it hit the ground in the mountainous area, CCTV reported.

An aerial view shows scorched land at the site where a China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province, China, in this still image taken from a drone footage on March 23, 2022. CGTN via Reuters TV

What’s Known About the Plane

The plane that crashed was a Boeing 737-800, a workhorse model that has a good safety record.

It’s not the Boeing 737 Max, a newer model that was temporarily grounded worldwide following two deadly crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 respectively. Use of the 737 Max hasn’t been allowed to resume in China.

The widely used Boeing 737-800 has been flying since 1998 and has an excellent safety record, said Hassan Shahidi, president of the Flight Safety Foundation. This model has been involved in 22 accidents that damaged the planes beyond repair and killed 612 people.

The plane, acquired in June 2015, met the requirements to fly before it took off on Monday, and its technical condition was stable, according to the chairman of China Eastern.

A screen displays cancelled China Eastern Airline flights at Kunming Changshui International Airport in Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan Province on March 22, 2022. Dake Kang/AP Photo

Leading the Investigation

The accident involved a major state-backed airline and took place in southern China, so the CAAC will lead the investigation.

Senior air safety investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and representatives from Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration will assist in probing the crash, according to NTSB. It falls under international standards because the plane was designed and manufactured in the United States.

However, U.S. investigators haven’t determined whether they will travel to China, said NTSB, citing the regime’s visa requirements and COVID-19 quarantine rules. China requires travelers to stay at a quarantine hotel for at least two weeks upon arrival.

Government workers control access to the entrance of Lv village which leads to the crash site in China's Guangxi Province on March 23, 2022. Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

The Associated Press contributed to this report.