A China Eastern Airlines Corp. Boeing Co. 737-800NG plane carrying 132 people has crashed in China’s southwestern province of Guangxi.
According to FlightRadar24, China Eastern flight MU5735 was travelling from Kunming to Guangzhou, and radar tracking shows the aircraft taking a steep descent.
Eyewitness videos posted to social media showed a mountainous crash that sparked a fire, with flames and smoke billowing from the scene. CCTV said the forest fire that was triggered by the crash has now been put out.
China Eastern’s website, mobile app and some of its social media platforms were turned to black and white in a sign of mourning.
The crash was confirmed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which said there were 123 passengers and nine crew members on board.
China Eastern lost contact with the aircraft over Wuzhou, CAAC said. China’s aviation regulator said it has initiated its emergency response and dispatched a working group to the scene.
Representatives for China Eastern and Boeing weren’t immediately available for comment.
The China Eastern crash couldn’t come at a worse time for Boeing, which is preparing for the re-entry of its 737 Max into commercial service in China. Bloomberg 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.
Max Deliveries
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.
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 six years old, according to FlightRadar.
The last major incident at China Eastern was in June 2013 when an Embraer SA jet skidded off the runway while landing in Shanghai airport, according to Aviation Safety Network.
The most recent fatal commercial accident in China meanwhile prior to Monday’s was in 2010, involving a Henan Airlines Co. Embraer jet, which killed 44 of the 96 people on board.
The last fatal crash involving China Eastern was in 2004, when an airliner bound for Shanghai crashed in Inner Mongolia, killing 53 people on board and two people on the ground. That was the worst aviation accident in China in 30 months at the time.
Shares of Boeing fell 6.8% to $179.97 in pre-market U.S. trading. Stock in Shanghai-based China Eastern fell as much as 6.4% in late trading in Hong Kong.
SOURCE: Bloomberg
IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay
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