Two months ago, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 lost radio contact and crashed into a mountainous area in Wuzhou, Guangxi Province around 2:38 p.m on March 21, killing all 132 people on board. The Chinese authorities previously insisted that the rumor saying the co-pilot caused the crash was untrue; but recently, several U.S. media outlets have quoted sources revealing that based on preliminary U.S. assessment, investigators believe that someone inside the cockpit caused an intentional nosedive.
A veteran pilot told The Epoch Times that the co-pilot on the plane should be scrutinized.
The first such analysis came from the Wall Street Journal on May 17, quoting sources familiar with the U.S. officials involved in the preliminary investigation. It revealed that data from the black box showed that commands entered into the control system sent the plane into a deadly dive.
On May 18, ABC News, citing U.S. officials, stated that U.S. investigators believed that the tragedy was caused by an intentional suicidal operation.
The U.S. officials explained to ABC News that the plane’s flaps were not engaged and the landing gear wasn’t put down. They believe the near-vertical descent of the plane would have required intentional force.
Veteran pilot Gao Fei, who recently spoke to The Epoch Times, said he agreed with this analysis. Gao is a Chinese-American pilot with 26 years of flying experience and has a deep understanding of the culture and management in China’s aviation industry. He has piloted Boeing aircraft in both China and the United States, including Boeing 737-800, the same model as the plane that crashed.
Moreover, China Eastern said in a recent statement to The Wall Street Journal that there was no evidence of any problems with the crashed plane, and reiterated the company’s March statement that the three pilots’ health and family conditions were good, and the financial status of each was good.
Gao, however, questioned why China Eastern Airlines did not discuss other important aspects about the pilots, especially whether their personal relations were good, and whether the company’s cultural atmosphere and employee treatment were decent. “All these are very important to the pilots, because any emotional fluctuations of the pilots may lead to safety risks,” he said
Japan Airlines pilot Fujimura, who has more than 20 years of flying experience, told The Epoch Times that the crash of China Eastern Airlines was likely a man-made tragedy instead of a mechanical failure. If there is a mechanical failure, the plane would fall slowly and would not have made a vertical plunge. “As it was a vertical dive, there could be two reasons: one is a pilot’s suicide dive, the other is that the plane was hijacked,” Fujimura explained.
Of the three pilots, Gao believes that further investigation should be focused on co-pilot Zhang Zhengping.
“Captain Yang Hongda was young, and had a promising future. His father was also a captain of China Eastern Airlines. So he had no reason to commit suicide. The second co-pilot, Ni Gongtao, a young man, was in love. There was all the more reason for him to not commit suicide,” Gao said.
According to Chinese media, Ni posted a photo of himself and his girlfriend under a cherry tree on social media the night before the tragedy.
“But the [other] co-pilot is different,” Gao continued. “He is a meritorious pilot with 40 years of flying experience. He used to be a flying instructor and an inspector appointed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. As a veteran pilot mentor, he was demoted to the position of co-pilot. So the possibility of him flying with emotions cannot be ruled out,”
A veteran captain of China Eastern Airlines confirmed to The Epoch Times that some of the veteran captains of China Eastern Airlines who are simple and obedient folks were suppressed by the company’s management team for various reasons. As a result, quite a few had been demoted to co-pilots and some to co-pilots for life.
A former China Eastern Airlines employee who now lives in the United States revealed to The Epoch Times that Zhang used to be a senior pilot of the former Yunnan Airlines. After the merger of Yunnan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, some former employees of Yunnan Airlines, including Zhang, had complicated conflicts with China Eastern Airlines’ executives and managers.
Chinese media Travel Daily reported in 2008 that Yunnan Airlines was very profitable, but in 2002, it was forcibly merged by China Eastern Airlines. A former employee of Yunnan Airlines complained to the outlet, “It’s unprecedented for a company suffering a financial loss to merge with a profitable company, and this is the key reason why Yunnan Airlines employees refuse to accept it to this day.”
The Civil Aviation Administration of China and China Eastern Airlines did not respond to requests for comment by The Epoch Times as of press time.
