Tragedy struck without warning. When Boeing 737-800 flight MU5735 left Kunming Changshui International Airport in Yunnan Province at 1:16 p.m. on March 21, nothing was looking out of the ordinary. Kunming's weather conditions were clear and takeoff was smooth. The China Eastern carrier in Yunnan Peacock livery, the province's iconic animal, soared into the skies as it had done many times before since its first flight in June 2015.

The passenger flight bound for Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province, was supposed to be a short trip for the 132 souls onboard—123 passengers and nine crew members. Data from flight tracking information provider VariFlight showed that the plane had been cruising at an altitude of some 8,900 meters.

At 2:20 p.m., air traffic controllers noticed the aircraft started a sudden descent from cruising altitude. They repeatedly tried calling the crew, but to no avail. At 2:23 p.m., the flight lost all contact with the ground. It was later confirmed the aircraft crashed in the mountainous regions of Tengxian County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, right between Yunnan and Guangdong provinces, exploding into a fireball and sparking a wildfire. The wreckage was subsequently discovered there.

The crash happened before people could even realize what was going on. A local villager surnamed Chen, who was working at a farm, saw the plane plummet from the skies. "It nosedived and looked to be in one piece," he told Xinhua News Agency. "Within seconds, it crashed."

Search and rescue

A rescue operation swiftly got underway. First to arrive at the crash site were 117 local firefighters and 23 fire trucks. They managed to extinguish the flames around 5:15 p.m., only to find small pieces of debris. Hundreds of rescuers from other parts of Guangxi and neighboring Guangdong and Yunnan rushed to the site, along with medical assistance for potential survivors.

President Xi Jinping called for the immediate activation of the emergency mechanism, all-out search and rescue efforts and the proper settlement of the disaster's aftermath. Vice Premier Liu He and State Councilor Wang Yong took relevant officials to Wuzhou, guiding the search operation and the investigation into the cause of the accident.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the Ministry of Emergency Management and other related departments have sent work groups to the scene to head the on-the-ground management.

The crash knocked a large crater in the heavily forested mountainside and the preliminary estimate of the core search area covers over 20,000 square meters. Rapid weather shifts this season and the fact that the green, hilly area has no access to electricity further complicated the search and rescue mission.

After two days, investigators retrieved one of the plane's two black boxes, Zhu Tao, director of the CAAC aviation safety office, announced at a press conference on March 23.

The box was later identified as the cockpit voice recorder. Though badly damaged, its storage unit looks relatively intact. It has been sent to a professional civil aviation agency in Beijing for decoding. As of March 24, the second black box, the flight data recorder, was yet to be recovered.

"Black boxes are crucial in getting close to knowing what happened," Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge told Beijing Communication Radio. "It is rare for a plane to crash while cruising. It is very likely the pilot lost control of the aircraft."

Investigating

This crash ended China's civil aviation safety record of over 4,000 days. The country's last fatal jet crash occurred on August 24, 2010, in Yichun, Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, killing 44 and injuring another 52.

Figures from the CAAC show that as of February 19, 2022, the continuous safe flight time of China's civil aviation industry had exceeded 100 million hours, representing the best safety performance in the industry's history, and the best among its peers worldwide.

The tragedy also raised concerns regarding Boeing's earlier safety issues. The aircraft is part of a class of Boeing jets known as 737-NG. These planes, the most common in use today, have had safety issues cited by U.S. regulators, although none of those rose to the level of requiring the planes to be grounded. Following the crash, China Eastern decided to ground all Boeing 737-800s in its fleet. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have required various industries to learn from the plane crash, and carry out inspections to identify safety hazards.

The press conference on March 23 revealed that investigators had concluded the weather on the route of MU5735 was suitable for flying and there were no hazardous conditions when the plane crashed. Communication between flight and ground control was determined "normal" from the plane's departure up to its sudden descent.

Sun Shiying, Chairman of the Yunnan subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, revealed at the press conference that the crashed aircraft had been maintained in line with the strictest of aviation standards; before departure on that ill-fated day, the jet was deemed airworthy. The three pilots—the captain, the co-pilot and an observer—were all in good health and their licenses were within the validity period.

Sun stated at a press conference on March 22 the company had established contact with the relatives of all passengers and crew onboard within 24 hours after the disaster. A team of over 160 experts, including psychologists, has been dispatched to offer help to the families. As of March 24, no survivors had been found.

The families are drenched in grief, with only a few choosing to talk to the media. Chinese People magazine published an online story based on interviews with several family members and friends. A 30-year-old man onboard the doomed flight had only tied the knot three months earlier and picked up his wedding photos the day before getting on the plane. He was a frequent flyer as he worked in Guangzhou and his wife lived in Kunming. Several years ago, he created a public account on WeChat, one of China's largest multi-purpose social media platforms, sharing their love story. After the crash, netizens went to the account, expressing their condolences.

One passenger's sister told China Youth Daily that her sister's husband and one-year-old child were all on the flight. The couple took their baby to see a doctor in Guangzhou. They were first-time flyers. "My parents can't handle this. All they can do, is cry," she said. "Every morning we wake up, hoping this was all just a nightmare." 

(Print Edition Title: An Ill-Fated Flight)

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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