After an abrupt dive from high altitude, a China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS) Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains of southern China on a domestic flight on Monday. There were no survivors, according to the media.
The airline expressed its condolences for the deaths of passengers and staff, but did not say how many people died.
When the plane crashed, it was in route from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane descended at 31,000 feet per minute. China Eastern said the reason of the accident was under investigation.
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The airline said it established a hotline for relatives of those on board and dispatched a team to the crash site. According to China Eastern and Chinese official television, there were no foreigners aboard the flight.
According to the media, Boeing 737 plane collapsed and ignited a fire that destroyed bamboo trees. A provincial firefighting department official was quoted in the People’s Daily as claiming that there was no trace of life among the wreckage.
A chunk of the jet was seen on a damaged, earthen hillside, according to state media. There were no signs of a fire or personal belongings.
The plane, which was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, lost communication over Wuzhou, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the airline.
At 0620 GMT, the jet, which Flightradar24 claimed was six years old, was travelling at 29,100 feet. Data revealed it had dropped to 9,075 feet in just over two minutes and 15 seconds.
Its last tracked altitude was 3,225 feet after 20 seconds.
Even though the cruising phase of a flight accounts for the majority of the flight time, crashes are uncommon. According to Boeing, just 13 percent of fatal commercial accidents occurred during the cruise phase between 2011 and 2020, compared to 28 percent on final approach and 26 percent on landing.
