Plane carrying 133 crashes in China, casualties unknown

Representational image

A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 133 people has crashed in southwest China and caused a mountain fire with casualties unknown, state broadcaster CCTV reported on March 21.

China Eastern will ground all of its Boeing 737-800 passenger flights from Tuesday, Chinese media outlet Yicai reported, citing sources. The carrier has 102 of that particular variety of jet.

China Eastern has confirmed the fatalities and said that the cause of the crash is “still under investigation”. “The company expresses its deep condolences for the passengers and crew members who died in the plane crash,” China Eastern said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, without giving details on the number of people killed.

The Boeing 737 plane crashed in the rural countryside near Wuzhou city, Guangxi region and "caused a mountain fire", CCTV said, citing the provincial emergency management bureau. The CAAC said the aircraft lost contact over the city of Wuzhou. It had 123 passengers and nine crew on board. State media said earlier there were 133 people on board.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed shock and sent his thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims of the crash.

Deeply shocked and saddened to learn about the crash of the passenger flight MU5735 with 132 on board in China’s Guangxi. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the crash and their family members.

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— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 21, 2022

It was flying from the city of Kunming to Guangzhou, China's Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. The flight departed the southwestern city of Kunming at 1:11 p.m. (0511 GMT), FlightRadar24 data showed. The flight tracking ended at 2:22 p.m. (0622 GMT) an altitude of 3225 feet with a speed of 376 knots.

Local media reported that China Eastern flight MU5735 had not arrived at its scheduled destination in Guangzhou after it took off from the city of Kunming shortly after 1:00 pm (0500 GMT) Monday, citing airport staff.

There was no word on the cause of the crash of the plane, a six-year-old 737-800 aircraft, according to Flightradar24.

737-800 NG Has Good Safety Record

The 737-800 NG, or Next Generation, is part of the Boeing single-aisle family which preceded the 737 Max. As of 2018, the NG had one of the best safety records among jetliners, with just eight fatal accidents out of more than 7,000 sold, according to data compiled by Boeing at the time.

According to Aviation Safety Network’s website, this is the first fatal accident involving a 737-800 jet since Jan. 8, 2020. The China Eastern jet involved was about six years and 10 months old, according to FlightRadar.

Difficult Time for Boeing

The crash comes at a bad time for Boeing, which is preparing for the re-entry of its 737 Max into commercial service in the country, a lucrative aviation market. Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Boeing had flown a Max to its completion and delivery center in Zhoushan, China, for the first time since the model received recertification.

China was the first major aviation market to ground the Max three years ago after the second of two fatal crashes that killed 346 people in total, and one of the last to see its return. The market is so large that Boeing’s plan to further ramp up production depends on the resumption of deliveries to China.

The aircraft involved in Monday’s crash wasn’t a new-generation Boeing Max jet.

China acts

Meanwhile, "the CAAC has activated the emergency mechanism and sent a working group to the scene," it said in a statement.

The website of China Eastern Airlines was later presented in black and white, which airlines do in response to a crash as a sign of respect for the assumed victims.

The safety record of China's airline industry has been among the best in the world over the past decade.

According to Aviation Safety Network, China's last fatal jet accident was in 2010, when 44 of 96 people on board were killed when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on approach to Yichun airport in low visibility.

In 1992, a China Southern 737-300 jet flying from Guangzhou to Guilin crashed on descent, killing all 141 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.