On 21 March 2022, China Eastern Airline flight 5735 was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou. Suddenly, on its way, the aircraft nosedived from its cruising altitude of 29,000 feet. China Eastern Airline Crash Boeing 737 into the terrain of Molang village, Teng county, Wuzhou, Guangxi mountainside, killing all 132 people, of which 9 were crew members. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) declared an emergency mechanism and sent a working team to the scene.
Aircraft Information
The aircraft type was Boeing 737-89P with call sign CHINA EASTERN 5735. The Boeing 737-800 was first lunched in 5 September 1994 with the serial number and registration number 41474 – B-1791. This plane was first flown on 5 June 2015 and then delivered to Eastern Yunnan Airlines. The aircraft had two turbofan engines, CFM56-7B26E.
The Boeing 737-800 is considered in the list of one of the safest planes due to its solid safety record with only 11 fatal accidents out of 7,000 delivered planes since 1997. The total seat capacity in B737-800 is 189 passengers, and that would decrease to 162 passengers when they use a two-class layout.
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-800 |
| Operator | China Eastern Yunnan Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | MU5735 |
| ICAO flight No. | CES5735 |
| Call sign | CHINA EASTERN 5735 |
| Registration | B-1791 |
| Flight origin | Kunming Changshui International Airport |
| Destination | Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport |
| Occupants | 132 |
| Passengers | 123 |
| Crew | 9 |
| Fatalities | 132 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Preliminary Findings on China Eastern Airline Crash Boeing 737
According to the Convention of ICAO, preliminary investigation findings should be submitted within 30 days of an accident occurring to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the investigation participant countries. These types of reports usually contain factual information without proper analysis or a conclusion of the case.
The report says that China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight MU5735, departed from Kunming airport, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, for the Guangzhou airport on March 21. The Flight entered the Guangzhou control area at 2.17 pm. After that, the area control radar warned of a deviation at 2:20:55 pm, and the aircraft left its cruising altitude of 8,900 meters (29,000 feet). The control tower called the crew immediately, but no answer was received. At 2:21:40 pm, the last thing recorded by the radar was standard pressure altitude at 3,380 meters (11,000 feet), and the ground speed was 1,010 kph.
The heading of the aircraft was 117 degrees, and then subsequently, the radar signal disappeared. The plan finally crashed into the mountainside near Molang Village under Langnan Township of Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. All 132 passengers, including the crew member, were dead.
The plane’s major pieces, including left and right engines, the vertical stabilizer, the landing gears, and the wings, were recovered. The plan’s two black boxes were also extracted, but they were in worse condition. The data recovery and analysis from the block box are still underway. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) that was found on 23 March in a very bad condition was sent to Beijing for data extraction. The flight data recorder was found on 27 March, which had a few dents on it. Later, both flight recorders were sent to the US capital, Washington, DC, for analysis and investigation.
From the maintenance perspective, the report reveals that both the crew and the aircraft met the Airworthiness standards, and they have a valid airworthiness certificate. Moreover, there were no dangerous goods on board; they would have caused this accident. And also the weather forecast reports any hazardous weather conditions.
The radio communication also shows no abnormality between crew members and the control tower before the aircraft deviates from its cruising altitude.
Was the Accident Performed Deliberately
Early reports that are taken from the flight recorder indicate that someone deliberately put the plane into a vertical dive from the cockpit. This information then led to the investigation of personnel sitting in the cockpit or someone breaching into the cockpit. The breaching of someone into the cockpit is unlikely, as the emergency code was not broadcast as declared by China Eastern.
The flight data recorder that was recovered from the crash was taken to the United States for analysis. The United States investigators believe that some in the cockpit deliberately nosedived the plane. This story was first published in The Wall Street Journal. Someone who is an expert at the US Transportation Safety Board made this statement that the plan does what it was told to do in the cockpit.
The news report published by ABC News describes that the plane was deliberately put in the vertical dive position, and also, there was no data in the flight recorder that indicated deployment of landing gear and flaps during the aircraft’s descent. Moreover, the pilot also had not made any mayday or emergency call to the control tower, nor did he answer any of the calls from the air traffic controller.
The civil aviation administration of China responded to this deliberate crash story that this kind of speculation has badly misled the public. And also put hurdles and interference in the investigation of the accident. The Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board haven’t made any comment on the investigation to AFP and referred all the questions to China’s regulators.
Was it a Catastrophic Failure?
The video footage that shows the last movement of China Eastern aircraft vertical dive shows that something from the empennage section had fallen apart. Experts also suggest that it can be the stabilizer problem that results in a crash. Later on, 24 March, Chinese authorities discovered a piece of a jet around 10 km (6 miles) from the crash site. They confirm that the midair breakup was a winglet. That doesn’t affect the airworthiness of aircraft, which is so lightweight that it can be broken during the descent.
Crew Details
The total number of crew was 9. In which 3 were pilots, and 5 were the flight attendants and in-flight security guards.
| Designation | Name | Experiences | Flight hours |
| Captain | Yang hongda | Boeing 737 pilot since January 2018 | 6,709 flight hours |
| First officer | Zhang Zhengping | Trained <100 captains, earned title of “Meritorious Pilot” in 2011 | 31,769 flight hours |
| Second officer | Ni Gongtao (as observer) | Trainee pilot | 556 flight hours |
Leave a Reply