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Chinese airliner carrying 132 people crashes in southern Guangxi region, China
A China Eastern Airlines jetliner carrying 132 people crashed in the mountains in southern China's Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, 21 March 2022, according to the country's Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC). The Boeing 737 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou. On board were 123 passengers and nine crew members. 450 fire fighters were dispatched to the scene of the accident. Fire fighters were dispatched by the Wuzhou Fire and Rescue Department at 15h05 CST. At 15h56, fire fighters from nearby Tangbu arrived and performed reconnaissance and at 16h40, fire fighters from outside Wuzhou were dispatched from Guilin, Beihai, Hezhou, Laibin and Hechi. Rescue crews had difficulty accessing the site because the crash caused a forest fire, which was extinguished by 17h25. By evening, 117 rescuers out of 650 dispatched had arrived and headed to the site from three directions.
Aircraft wreckage and belongings of occupants were found but there were no signs of human bodies or remains. Workers used hand equipment, detection dogs and UAVs to locate the flight data recorders and human remains. On 23 March, rescue workers recovered human remains and one flight recorder, thought to be the cockpit voice recorder, which had suffered heavy damage to its casing although the stored contents apparently remained "relatively intact". Wet weather and the challenging accessibility of the crash site hampered the recovery process. Heavy rain partially filled the impact crater with water, which had to be pumped away. Recovery activities were suspended in the morning due to the threat of landslides. China Eastern Airlines confirmed that it had activated emergency procedures, including a line for emergency assistance for family members. President Xi Jinping quickly called for a full probe following the crash as search teams, fire fighters and other personnel descended upon the site. They are conducting a diligent search for the aircraft's black boxes, in the hope the recording systems will shed more light on the reason behind the disaster. Other teams were shown launching drones, in a search mission complicated by the steep terrain and dense vegetation. Sudden descent The aircraft lost contact with emergency services before "suddenly descending" around 2:19 p.m., Chinese government officials and state media reported Monday. "A China Eastern aircraft (flight number MU5735) lost contact at 2.15 pm ... Rescue teams are on the way to ground zero, and rescue work is being laid out in order," the Guangxi Emergency Management Department said in a statement. The aircraft's altitude dropped from 8 869 metres to 1 333.5 metres in the span of three minutes, state news agency China News Service reported, citing VariFlight, a Chinese technology company that provides civil aviation data services. Hours after the accident, CCTV reported that the airline was grounding all its Boeing 737-800s and that the aircraft currently in the air would "not carry more flights after landing." CCTV also reported that rescue efforts could be hampered by bad weather and limited accessibility to the site. Heavy rescue equipment was unable to reach the scene, which lacks electricity as it is surrounded by mountains on three sides and accessible only through a narrow path, CCTV said, citing the Guangxi Wuzhou Fire Department. Separately, Guangxi Meteorological Bureau warned that the rescue effort could be hindered by an incoming cold front that would see heavy rainfall and a temperature drop in Tengxian County, where the crash site is. Passengers and crew There were 123 passengers and nine crew members on the flight, for a total of 132 people. The CAAC and the airline are in the process of retrieving the names of the passengers and crew. All passengers were Chinese. The flight crew consisted of three pilots, five flight attendants and a security guard.
Black box found A search team in China has found one of the black boxes in a severely damaged condition from the Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed in Guangxi on Monday. The black box recovered is believed to be the cockpit voice recorder, an aviation official told a press briefing on Wednesday night. The exterior of the black box has been severely damaged but its data storage unit is relatively complete despite some damage, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The black box is being sent to Beijing for decoding. Downloading and decoding the data will take some time and the process could be prolonged further if the internal storage unit is impaired, Zhu said. The official said that investigators will continue to search for the flight data recorder, the other black box, to provide a more complete picture of what happened to cause the crash. Eyewitness describes falling aircraft In an interview with state media outlet Beijing Youth Daily, an eyewitness described seeing a aircraft "falling directly from the sky in front of him around 14h00”. "The aircraft fell vertically from the sky. Although I was very far away, I could still see that it was a aircraft. The aircraft did not smoke during the fall. The fire started after it fell into the mountain, followed by a lot of smoke," the witness, who was only identified by his surname, Liu, said. "My heart was thumping. I immediately informed friends about the situation, that this area is dangerous and not to come nearby," Liu continued. In a separate interview with China News Service, a resident from Molang village in Tengxian county, close to the scene of the crash, reported seeing "wings and pieces of the aircraft, as well as pieces of clothing hanging from trees”. The witness, whose name was not published, told state media he drove his motorcycle to the crash site after hearing "a huge explosion" around 14h40 to "see if he could participate in the rescue." The onlooker added that the accident caused "about 10 acres of fire," according to his visual estimates. Sudden descent The aircraft lost contact with emergency services before "suddenly descending" around 2:19 p.m., Chinese government officials and state media reported Monday. "A China Eastern aircraft (flight number MU5735) lost contact at 2.15 pm ... Rescue teams are on the way to ground zero, and rescue work is being laid out in order," the Guangxi Emergency Management Department said in a statement. The aircraft's altitude dropped from 8 869 metres to 1 333.5 metres in the span of three minutes, state news agency China News Service reported, citing VariFlight, a Chinese technology company that provides civil aviation data services. Hours after the accident, CCTV reported that the airline was grounding all its Boeing 737-800s and that the aircraft currently in the air would "not carry more flights after landing." CCTV also reported that rescue efforts could be hampered by bad weather and limited accessibility to the site. Heavy rescue equipment was unable to reach the scene, which lacks electricity as it is surrounded by mountains on three sides and accessible only through a narrow path, CCTV said, citing the Guangxi Wuzhou Fire Department. Separately, Guangxi Meteorological Bureau warned that the rescue effort could be hindered by an incoming cold front that would see heavy rainfall and a temperature drop in Tengxian County, where the crash site is. The colours on the Boeing and China Eastern Airlines websites were changed to black and white in China, as a sign of respect in response to the crash. Sources: Xinhua News, CNN, Daily Mail UK |
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