China Eastern Airlines crash that killed 132 may have been intentional: report
Chinese airliner crash led to Boeing 737-800s being grounded by China's four major airlines
The Chinese airliner that crashed into a mountain in March was put into a near-vertical nosedive by someone in the cockpit, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The late March crash killed all 132 passengers on the plane, a Boeing 737-800. Investigators uncovered both black boxes on the plane soon after the crash, and they indicate the plane's controls were used to pitch the aircraft into a dive, according to U.S. officials who spoke with the Journal.
Searchers uncovered the plane's cockpit voice recorder on March 27, sending it to Beijing. China then transferred the device to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in early April. The NTSB also sent investigators to China to assist in the inquiry.
The contents of the voice recorder have yet to be publicized, however.
Workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 24, 2022. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File / AP Newsroom)
Rescuers carry a piece of plane wreckage at the site of Monday's plane crash in Tengxian County, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 25, 2022. (Zhou Hua/Xinhua via AP / AP Newsroom)
The general area of forest where the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed in the Guangxi Region, China, is seen in the screengrab from a video released on March 21, 2022. (China Fire Department/Handout via Reuters) (Reuters)
SEVERELY DAMAGED BLACK BOX FROM DOOMED CHINA EASTERN PLANE RECOVERED
Records show the China Eastern Airlines flight was cruising at 29,000 feet before suddenly plummeting into the side of a forested mountain. The aircraft left a 65-foot deep crater, leaving parts strewn across a wide area.
An aircraft controller noticed the plane's sudden drop in altitude and attempted to contact the pilots multiple times, but got no answer.
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China Eastern is one of China's four major airlines, and each of the airlines has grounded all Boeing 737-800s as a precaution. Together the airlines have a total of 223 of the aircraft.