Three years, almost to the day, after the second deadly crash of a 737 Max, Boeing is involved in a new air disaster.
A Boeing 737-800 NG, which was to reach Guangzhou after taking off from Kunming, in southwest China, crashed on Monday in a mountainous and wooded area near the city of Wuhzou, in Guangxi , after a vertiginous fall of nearly 8000 meters in three minutes while at cruising altitude.
On board China Eastern Airlines flight MU 5735, 132 people (including 9 crew).
There is little chance of finding survivors, the plane having been
"pulverized"
by embedding itself in the mountain, which caught fire, according to local residents and images from public television CCTV.
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The behavior of the plane is considered
"unusual"
by Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of the Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEA) for the safety of civil aviation.
"It could be either the autopilot which would have ordered a sudden descent of the plane which would not have been caught by the crew, which seems a bit surprising given the duration of the fall, three minutes, or a action of the crew, but (…) it is much too early to draw conclusions”,
he explains to AFP.
The 737 NG, the third version of the 737 (born in the 1960s) launched in the 1990s, is considered a reliable aircraft.
Boeing has delivered some 4,000 copies worldwide.
And China Eastern, China's second largest airline, also enjoys a good reputation.
The Chinese Aviation Safety Agency (CAAC) sent rescuers to the scene and a team of investigators to collect clues and find the black boxes, which record flight data and voice exchanges between pilots.
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The crash caused great emotion in China, where air accidents are quite rare.
In an unusual intervention on television, Xi Jinping declared himself
"in shock".
The Chinese president called on the investigators to
“determine the causes of the accident as soon as possible”.
This tragedy turns out to be the second deadliest crash in China.
In June 1994, a China Northwest Tupolev Tu-154 broke up in flight over the Xi'an region.
Toll: 160 dead.
The accident was attributed to a maintenance error.
A crucial market
For its part, Boeing indicates
"to work to collect more information".
It's a new blow for the American giant, whose title fell nearly 6% yesterday on Wall Street.
On December 2, Boeing had finally obtained from the CAAC the lifting of the flight ban on the 737 Max, which came into effect on March 11, 2019. China had been the first to ground the Max fleet and the last large country to allow flights to resume.
But the return to commercial service is not yet effective.
Hence Boeing's concern.
Especially since China Eastern has decided to ground its fleet of 737-800 NG, or 111 aircraft.
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The crash is likely to have consequences for the resumption of deliveries of the 737 Max, planned by Boeing in the first quarter of 2022. However, China is a crucial market, which represents 25% of its deliveries.
The increase in the rate of the Max, from 16 to 31 planes per month at the start of 2022 (50 per month at the end of 2023, according to the engine manufacturer Safran), is also based on the resumption of deliveries and orders in China.
In the eyes of some, the Max could be a “collateral victim” of diplomatic tensions between the United States and China.
Washington has threatened Beijing with reprisals if China helps Russia militarily in its war against Ukraine.
