A Boeing 737-800 crashed near the city of Wuzhou, in the Guangxi region, according to Chinese public television, which did not provide an immediate report.
A Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed on Monday March 21 in southern China, an accident that could prove to be the deadliest since 1994 in this country where aviation safety has greatly improved.
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No death toll had been published Monday evening Beijing time more than six hours after the disaster which prompted a hot reaction from President Xi Jinping, unusual for a Chinese leader. But looking at the data from the crash, it seemed unlikely that anyone made it out alive. In a statement, the airline, China Eastern Airlines, said:paid tribute” to “deadof the disaster.
According to the specialized site FlightRadar24, the device lost in the space of three minutes nearly 26,000 feet (7925 m) before disappearing from the radar screens after 2:22 p.m. local time (7:22 a.m. in France). Flight MU5735 of the Shanghai company China Eastern Airlines took off shortly after 1:00 p.m. local time (600 in France) from the metropolis of Kunming (South-West). His destination was Canton (South), some 1300 km away.
“Shocked»
The 737-800, which was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, “lost contact over Wuzhou cityin the mountainous region of Guangxi, the Chinese Civil Aircraft Administration (CAAC) said. A video broadcast by Chinese media shows a plane diving vertically from the nose, but AFP has not been able at this stage to verify its authenticity. The plane “was pulverized“, told a local resident to a local media.
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The accident has “caused a firein the mountain, said state broadcaster CCTV, which broadcast footage of firefighters heading to the crash site through a mountainous, tree-lined area. Rescuers extinguished the flames. “All the inhabitants took the initiative to help the relief workers. Everyone went to the mountain“, declared by telephone to AFP a tradeswoman of the name of Tang Min, installed at approximately four km of the place of the impact.
President Xi Jinping said to himself,shockedafter the accident, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The Beijing strongman called for “determine the causes of the accident as soon as possible“. From the United States, Boeing said it is trying “to gather more information“. According to the financial media Yicai, China Eastern decided without waiting for the results of the investigation to suspend all its 737-800s from Tuesday. The company could not be reached to comment on this information.
At Guangzhou airport, relatives of passengers, some in tears, were gathered in a dedicated waiting room, AFP noted. A woman told local media that she was originally supposed to be on the crashed plane, but decided at the last minute to take an earlier flight. She waited “newsin return for his sister and four friends. A man, Ye, told AFP that a colleague was on board. “When we heard the news… we kept calling him for hours, but never managed to reach him.“, he said.
Rare disasters in China
Plane accidents are relatively rare in China, a country where air traffic has grown significantly in recent decades and safety measures are generally strict. The last major accident in the country dates back to August 2010. A flight from the Chinese company Henan Airlines then crashed in the northeast of the country and killed around 40 people.
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The heaviest toll for a commercial flight dates back to 1994. A China Northwest Airlines Tupolev 154 crashed shortly after takeoff from Xi’an (north), killing all 160 people on board. A large number of Chinese passengers also died in March 2014 when Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, bound for Beijing, disappeared. Monday’s air disaster is another blow for Boeing in China.
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In March 2019, the country was the very first in the world to order its companies to suspend flights of 737 MAX aircraft for security reasons. The announcement followed two accidents in a few months abroad, which had killed 346 people.
Nearly three years after these setbacks, the Chinese regulator finally lifted its flight ban for the Boeing 737 MAX last December. It is unclear whether these aircraft have resumed commercial flights in China again. This decision was eagerly awaited by Boeing, of which China is an important market.
The regulator notably conditioned the return of the 737 MAX in Chinese skies to technical modifications to the planes, in order to guarantee flight safety. China was the last major country to lift the ban on the aircraft.
Boeing shares fell 5.6% to $182.06 by mid-morning. The stock was the Dow Jones’ biggest loser. The China Eastern company lost nearly 9% Tuesday morning at the opening of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
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