About an hour into its journey from Kunming to Guangzhou, China, flight MU5735 fell out of the air. In about two minutes, according to flight tracking data, it suddenly dropped, briefly ascended and then dove into a remote bamboo forest in the mountains near Wuzhou.
CCTV footage from a nearby mine, shared online and verified by Jimu News and the Wall Street Journal, claims to capture the plane’s horrifyingly steep final descent, plunging at just 35 degrees off vertical.
There has been no official announcement on the death toll, but state media have reported there were no signs of survivors.
Photo: AFP
The airline said there were no foreign nationals among the passengers.
The flight was carrying 132 people, including nine crew members. ID cards and wallets have reportedly been found at the scene, but the plane’s black box has yet to be located and the cause of the crash is not yet known.
However, some details about those onboard have begun to come through as families gathered at the plane’s destination airport in Guangdong and the airline’s office in Yunnan.
According to local reports, a group of six were heading to Guangzhou for a funeral. A woman who gave a pseudonym, Chen, told Jimu News the six included her sister and best friend.
Another man, surnamed Yan, told Reuters a 29-year-old colleague was on the plane, and he was left to notify their mother.
“When she picked up the phone, she choked up,” Yan said, adding that he had a “heavy heart” when he heard the news.
Chinese media outlet The Paper reported that another man, referred to as Liu Li, was on his way to Guangzhou from Kunming for a reunion with his family after they bought him a ticket. Another report described a young woman on her way to meet her fiance.
“We couldn’t reach her,” her brother said. “She should have been arriving at Guangzhou after two hours. Her fiance is waiting for her at Guangzhou airport, he couldn’t find her or reach her.”
Initial reports said there were 133 people aboard, a number which was later corrected after it emerged a passenger had canceled their flight prior to boarding.
Authorities have established a huge presence near the crash site, with multiple first responder groups, trauma specialists, psychologists, government emergency coordinators and media. Live coverage by state media shows villagers on motorbikes carrying rescue workers and supplies up the mountain trail to the scene.
The crash is China’s worst air disaster in at least a decade, and follows recent government praise for the industry’s vastly improved safety track record. The plane flying route MU5735 was not a Boeing 737 Max, which was grounded after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, but a Boeing 737-800, one of the world’s most common passenger planes.
China Eastern Airlines has grounded all of that model in its fleet, as investigations continue.
“Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are working with our airline customer and are ready to support them.”
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