Chinese authorities confirmed Monday that a Chinese Eastern Airlines flight carrying 132 passengers and nine crew members went down in the southern Chinese city of Wuzhou, killing all on board.
Footage of the wreckage began circulating on social media, showing the massive extent of a fire where the plane crashed into a mountainside:
[Warning: Graphic]
From the Newsweek link:
The flight that crashed appears to be Flight No. MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou. Flight-tracking showed the Boeing 737-89P rapidly lost speed and entered a steep descent.
CAAC said it had sent a team of officials and the Guangxi fire services to deal with the fire and crash aftermath. It is not yet clear what the cause of the crash was.
CCTV also captured the final moments of the plane before it crashed:
If you're wondering if that plane was headed nose first into the ground, it looks like it. The New York Times reported that the plane descended 20,000 feet in about a minute.
The plane was cruising at an altitude of 29,100 feet when, in just over a minute, it lost more than 21,000 feet. It appeared to briefly regain altitude around 8,000 feet before continuing its plunge, according to Flightradar24's data.
The plane was in the far east of the Guangxi region, where weather reports don't suggest any possible contributing factors. Temperatures reached a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit around 2 p.m., according to the China Meteorological Administration. Winds were moderate at less than 12 miles per hour, and visibility was 10 miles. Rain was forecast for the evening, but no precipitation had been measured at the time of the crash.
Radar-tracking apps also showed the moment the plane crashed:
Here's a reported picture of the wreckage:
There were additional photos videos circulating online of the crash, although these could not be verified.
Newsweek also reported that Chinese airlines haven't lost a plane in over 20 years.
If you want my honest opinion, giant planes don't crash nose-first into the ground at full speed (the plane dropped 3.8 miles out of the sky in a minute), especially without any wild turbulence that would be evident in case of wing/fuselage sheer... unless there was severe pilot error or purposeful intent. But this is entirely speculation based on limited facts.
Since China's police state hushes up truth on a daily basis, I have little faith we will ever learn what really happened. Please pray for the families of those who were lost!
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