China’s Air Disaster - First Time in a Decade

CNN covers the worst air disaster in China in over a decade. China’s largest airline, China Eastern Airlines, crashed late Monday, March 21st. CNN covered the event.

They wrote:

“In China’s worst air disaster in more than a decade, the Boeing 737-800 – carrying 132 people – crashed Monday afternoon in a remote, mountainous region in the south of the country as it flew from Kunming to Guangzhou.”

“‘The flight took off from Kunming at 1:16 p.m. and was flying normally. At around 2:21 p.m., it arrived over Wuzhou city of Guangxi province. The ground station noticed that the plane had a sudden altitude change, and then it lost communication with the plane, before the plane eventually crashed,’ said Sun Shiying, a representative for China Eastern Airlines.”

“Photos and videos posted by state media show giant plumes of smoke rising above the mountains following the crash. Search and rescue crews wade through the thicket, scattered with debris and plane parts. Wallets, ID cards and fragments of a phone were among personal belongings strewn on the ground, China Youth Daily reported.”

“In the minutes before the disaster, the plane had been at a cruising altitude of 29,000 feet (about 8,900 meters), according to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24. Then, the jet nosedived so quickly that it plunged more than 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) in under two minutes.”

“Security footage from a mining company near the crash site shows what appears to be a plane hurtling toward the forest, nearly vertical in its rapid fall. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the video, or that the aircraft is China Eastern Flight 5735 – but the steep decline matches the flight tracking data.”

Yeung, J., & Ritchie, H. (2022, March 22). No survivors found after China's worst air disaster in more than a decade. CNN. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/china/china-eastern-airlines-plane-crash-tuesday-intl-hnk/index.html