Authorities confirm: All plane occupants died in crash in China

Created: 03/27/2022, 04:54

By: Sven Hauberg

Rescue workers are on duty at the plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Autonomous Region.

© Lu Boan/Xinhua/dpa

After the crash of a Boeing 737 in China, experts continue to puzzle over the cause of the accident.

The machine apparently crashed to the ground vertically and at the speed of sound.

Update from March 26, 4:35 p.m .:

About a week after the plane crash of a Boeing 737 in China, media reports confirm that all 132 occupants died in the accident.

This was reported by the Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

"All 123 passengers and nine crew members of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 died on board on March 21," the civil aviation authority's deputy director-general, Hu Zhenjiang, said on Saturday.

Plane crash in China: 120 dead identified

Update from March 26, 1:36 p.m

.: First certainties for relatives after the plane crash in China: Five days after the mysterious crash of a Chinese airliner with 132 people on board, the identity of 120 dead has been clarified.

Guangxi Region Fire Department chief Zheng Xi said Saturday that the identities of 114 passengers and six crew members have been accurately assigned.

Traces of explosives were not discovered under debris during laboratory tests.

Rescue operations at the crash site are still ongoing.

It is located in a hilly area near the southern Chinese city of Wuzhou.

However, the data flight recorder has not yet been found, only the voice recorder.

It was damaged but relatively complete.

Investigators hope the black box will provide technical information and other important data on the cause of the Boeing 737-800 crash.

Plane crash in China: Cause of the accident still unclear

First report from March 25

: Munich/Wuzhou – After the crash of a Boeing 737-800 in southern China*, the cause of the accident is still unclear.

The China Eastern Airlines machine crashed on Monday (March 21) with 132 people on board near the city of Wuzhou in Guangxi Province *.

So far, no survivors have been rescued.

According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, there is now evidence that the plane broke up in mid-air.

Accordingly, investigators found an approximately 1.3 meter by ten centimeter large part of the aircraft about ten kilometers from the crash site.

If the part actually comes from the accident machine, this could indicate some kind of breakup of the Boeing.

According to the report, it is still unclear whether the part came loose during the crash or whether it had already broken off the machine beforehand.

"It begs the question of exactly what part it is and when it came loose," Jeff Guzzetti, former director of accident investigations at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), told Bloomberg.

Air crash in China: crash at almost the speed of sound

The plane, which was en route from Kunming (Yunnan province) to Guangzhou (Guangdong province*), was completely destroyed in the crash.

So far, search parties have only been able to salvage individual pieces of wreckage, as well as human remains.

Investigators assume that all 132 occupants died in the accident and were completely burned.

The crash had triggered a forest fire, which could be extinguished a little later.

Flight data shows that flight number MU5735 departed Kunming Airport at 1:15 p.m. local time.

By 2:19 p.m., the aircraft was traveling at an altitude of 8,869 m.

But then it suddenly left its cruising altitude and began to descend at a speed of around 845 km/h.

According to Chinese media, an eyewitness named Li said the plane "fell straight out of the sky."

A video that was distributed by the state-owned

, among others , is said to show the crash of the machine or parts of the plane.

According to FAA expert Guzzetti, the plane went down in just about a minute and a half.

"In my opinion the plane dropped parts during the crash," Guzzetti told Bloomberg.

tracking service also

indicate that the plane did not break up completely during the crash, as it was still sending data up to an altitude of 983 meters.

The data also shows the plane may have crashed at nearly the speed of sound, according to Bloomberg.

Since normal passenger planes are not designed for such speeds, relatively light components on the wings and tail unit could come loose.

Studies after the crash of a Boeing 737 in Indonesia in 1997 showed that.

China: First fatal crash in over a decade

Chinese aviation professor Hu Xiaobing told state broadcaster CGTN that the crash was "very unusual" because the Boeing appeared to have fallen vertically nose-first from the sky.

It is possible that the pilot was unconscious during the dive.

But we have to wait for further test results.

The airline China Eastern announced on Wednesday that there was no suspicion about the pilot and his two co-pilots.

According to initial findings, they did their job "usually very well" and their family situation was "harmonious".

The accident machine is said to have been almost seven years old.

Airplane crashes are very rare in China, Chinese aviation is considered safe.

The last time there was a serious plane crash in China was in 2010: 44 people died when a Henan Airlines Embraer E-190 crashed.

Plane crash in China: search for data black box continues

The two flight recorders on the machine could provide information about the cause of the accident.

Investigators found the voice recorder on Wednesday and sent it to Beijing for investigation.

According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, the chief of the flight security department of China's civil aviation authority, Zhu Tao, said it was possible that the voice recorder was damaged.

Reports that the data flight recorder had already been found were withdrawn on Friday.

According to a report by the

, however, orange-colored debris that could belong to one of the two flight recorders was recovered on Friday morning (local time).

"It is likely that the second black box is somewhere near where the orange debris was found," Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted an expert as saying.

Plane crash in China: Corona and bad weather make salvage work more difficult

The search work in the mountainous region in southern China, which is difficult to access, has recently been hampered by high temperatures and heavy rain.

In addition, there are apparently strict corona rules *, which cause problems for the workers deployed.

Recordings on Chinese state television show men wearing masks and protective suits.

"It's very humid today,"

a CCTV anchor said from the scene , according to the

“Given the rain and high temperatures, the prevention of Covid-19 is very important.

That's why everyone who works at the crime scene wears a hazmat suit.”

After the accident, the airline China Eastern decided to ground all of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft for the time being.

The US aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced its support for the investigation.

"Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735," the company said.

Technical experts stand by to help investigate the cause of the accident, led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.