China plane crash latest news: State broadcaster says no survivors found as Boeing 737 fleet grounded

Along with North America and Europe, China is one of the world’s top three air travel markets. It has dramatically improved safety since a string of deadly crashes in the 1990s and 2000s.

The China Eastern tragedy on Monday comes after years free of major air disasters.

The last crash of a commercial jetliner in mainland China was in 2010, where 44 of the 96 passengers on board an Embraer E-190 regional jet were killed.

It crashed while approaching to Yichun airport in low visibility.

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Worried relatives have gathered at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, waiting for updates.

One man at the airport told Reuters news agency he was the colleague of a passenger named Mr Tan.

After confirming that he was on the plane, he had to break the news to Mr Tan’s family.

“They were sobbing. His mother couldn’t believe this had happened,” he said.

“She said she will be here as soon as possible. Because she was very sad, her boy was only 29 years old.”

India has decided to put Boeing 737 fleets of Indian carriers on “enhanced surveillance” after the China Eastern Airlines plane crash.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced on Tuesday that SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express, which have Boeing 737 in their fleets, shall be put on an “enhanced surveillance” in the wake of the devastating crash that is believed to have left all 132 people onboard dead.

“Flight safety is serious business and we are closely studying the situation,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar said, according to Indian news agencies.

About 74 per cent of the 11,800 flights scheduled in China have been canceled on Tuesday, a day after a plane crashed on a mountainside in southern China.

According to VariFlight, a global flight data services company, even some of the busiest domestic flight routes — from Beijing and Shanghai — have been affected by this.

The cancellations come after a Boeing 737-800 plane operated by China Eastern Airlines nosedived in a crash that is believed to have killed all 132 people onboard.

Meanwhile, Flight Master, the Chinese aviation data provider, reported that other Chinese airlines that use the Boeing 737-800 are yet to cancel any of their flights as of Tuesday.

The deadly crash of the Boeing 737-800 in southern China, which is believed to have killed all 132 people onboard, comes as a major setback for the aircraft maker’s efforts in China, renewing concerns about its planes’ safety.

On Monday, the China Eastern Airlines flight plummeted 30,000 ft in two minutes near the city of Wuzhou, in Teng county, in the province of Guangxi region.

It brings back the spotlight on Boeing, which has had a turbulent few years after two of its 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.

The 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia led to the grounding of the fleet for about 20 months.

The Boeing 737-800 that crashed on Monday does not have the equipment that led to the 737 Max disasters.

However, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network, since its launch, 737-800s have been involved in 22 hull-loss accidents that resulted in 612 fatalities.

“What we know is that the crash happened during the cruise phase of the flight, which is comparatively rare even though this phase accounts for the majority of flight time,” Oleksandra Molloy, aviation safety expert at the University of New South Wales told Al Jazeera.

He noted that only 13 per cent of fatal commercial accidents globally between 2011 and 2020 occurred during the cruise phase. “Usually, the autopilot is engaged during this phase.”

On Tuesday, additional teams of rescuers and medical experts arrived at site of the crash in Guangxi region, CGTN reported.

Hundreds of volunteers from neighbouring Yunnan and Guangdong are also reportedly on their way to join the rescue efforts.

A team of rescuers from Wuzhou was the first to reach the site and extinguish the fire caused due to the crash on Monday.

At 2.38pm on Monday local time, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 plane carrying 132 people crashed in a mountainous region near Molang village in south China’s Wuzhou city.

No survivors have been found so far, nearly 24 hours since the crash.

The search for the airplane’s black box is still underway.

Rescue operations in China are underway at the site of the crash on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

State broadcaster CCTV said earlier in the day that no survivors have been found so far.On Monday, a China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board crashed in the mountainous region near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region. All those on board the plane are believed to have been Chinese.

Rescue teams continue to scour the slopes of the mountain in hopes of finding the black box and other parts of the plane that could help experts determine the exact cause of the crash.

On Monday, after the crash, debris from the plane was found strewn all over with belongings of passengers covering the ground.

State media reported that burnt remains of identity cards and wallets were also found at the site.

The flight MU5735 was en route from Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan, to the port city of Guangzhou, when it suddenly nose-dived to the ground.

A woman who said six of her relatives and friends were onboard the Chinese Eastern Airlines plane that crashed has lit 100 candles in their memory.

The woman, who was identified by just her surname Chen, planned to attend a burial ceremony in Guangzhou, Guangdong province for her six family members and friends who died in the crash on Monday, Global Times reported.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has said that he was “shocked to learn” about the tragic incident.

State broadcaster reported on Tuesday that no survivors were found at the site of the crash near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region.

A day after the crash, Boeing China will “cooperate” with China Eastern Airlines and will provide support, the company said on Tuesday.

The Global Times reported that the company is in touch with the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States and has asked its technical experts to aid the Civil Aviation Administration of China in conducting the investigation.

The China Eastern plane, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, was carrying 132 people when it crashed in hills near the city of Wuzhou, in the Guangxi region.

Even though the black box from the China Eastern 737 is yet to be retrieved, a Chinese aviation expert has said that it is likely that the plane lost engine power and this resulted in the pilot losing control of the aircraft.

Wang Ya’nan, the chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge, was quoted by the Global Times as saying that “it could be a very serious technical failure in which the plane inevitably enters a high-speed descent”.

He however made it clear that the specific cause can only be determined after the black box is recovered and analysed.

The Chinese state broadcaster has reported that there were no survivors found at the site of the crash on Tuesday.