No survivors found in China Boeing 737-800 plane crash; black box search may be difficult
More than a day after a commercial plane smashed into a remote mountainside in China, igniting a massive blaze and kicking off an intensive search effort, none of the 132 people onboard had been found.
Search operations continued Tuesday near the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800, which created a large pit in the mountainside when it fell from the sky Monday afternoon, rescuers told China's state-owned Xinhua News Agency.
While items such as wallets, ID cards and pieces of the Boeing aircraft have been found near the crash site outside the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region, no signs of survivors were found in the first day of the search, state media outlets reported.
The China Eastern flight was flying from Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan to Guangzhou, a large city in the Guangdong Province northwest of Hong Kong. Nine crew members and 123 passengers were onboard the flight, and there were no foreign nationals, according to China's Foreign Ministry.
Data from flight tracking websites and a video appearing to be the China Eastern flight indicate the aircraft dove suddenly before it crashed. The cause of the crash remains unknown.
CHINA EASTERN CRASH: No survivors found among 132 people in China plane crash, state media says
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Search for black box may be difficult
More than 600 firefighters and other officials were sent to the crash site to aid in the operation, state-owned China Daily reported. Among the first people to the scene were residents who saw the flames the crash ignited.
Li Chenbin heard a loud bang as he was working on a mobile communication network nearby Monday, he told China Daily. He added he went to the site and saw debris "scattered all over the mountains."
Chen Weihao, who was working on a farm nearby when the crash occurred, told Xinhua the plane hit a gap in the mountain where nobody lived. China Daily reported locals have been transporting supplies to the site via motorbike to help search workers.
According to Xinhua, the search for the plane's black box, which holds its flight data and cockpit voice recorders, would be challenging and involve both drones and manual searching.
Aerovise aviation expert Josh Verde told Paste BN that if the plane nosedived, the impact force would be "tremendous," and there would be no guarantee of anything on the plane, including the black box, surviving.
HOW IT HAPPENED: China plane, with 132 aboard, had frightening descent before crash
How did the airplane crash?
The flight took off at 1:11 p.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive at 3:05 p.m., but air traffic controllers lost track of the plane around 2:15 p.m., according to China Daily.
Data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.com shows the China Eastern Airlines flight traveling at about 30,000 feet before it suddenly dropped around 2:20 p.m. The airplane was traveling at its cruising altitude speed of 523 mph, according to the data. The plane fell to 7,400 feet before it briefly regained about 1,200 feet in altitude, and then dove again. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after starting to dive.
Did Boeing 737-800 have safety issues?
Verde said the planes "don't have any ongoing areas of concern" and have had long, safe track records. In 2019, however, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered the inspection of heavily used 737 NGs for cracks in wing supports, which found several planes had wing cracks.
The 737 NGs are a family of Boeing "Next-Generation" planes, which include the 737-800. Those planes are a predecessor to the 737 Max, which was grounded worldwide after fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. China recently cleared the 737 Max to return to service, pending modifications to the aircraft, the South China Morning Post reported, but the 737 Max has not flown in China in three years.
According to Boeing, the first 737-800 was delivered in April 1998, and more than 5,100 have since been delivered. The plane that crashed had been flying for more than six years after it was delivered to the airline in June 2015.
China’s Transport Ministry said China Eastern's 737-800 fleet, which includes 109 planes, would be grounded.
"The cause of the plane crash is still under investigation, and the company will actively cooperate with relevant investigations," the airline said in a statement Monday, according to The New York Times. "The company expresses its deep condolences to the passengers and crew members who died in the plane crash."
Boeing said in a statement it was ready to assist with the investigation into the crash, which would be led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
"The thoughts of all of us at Boeing are with the passengers and crew members on Flight MU 5735, as well as their families and loved ones," added Boeing CEO David Calhoun.
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza, Dawn Gilbertson and Celina Tebor, Paste BN; The Associated Press