China Eastern Airlines Flight Crashes in Guangxi Province

No survivors have been found on the Boeing 737-800 which crashed in Guangxi. (Wikimedia Commons)

China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou plunged toward the earth at nearly the speed of sound before crashing into a hillside in Guangxi province on March 1. Per the South China Morning Post, no survivors have been identified. Although the exact number of casualties remains unclear, there were 132 passengers aboard.

The jet’s rapid velocity at the moment of collision has made it difficult for officials to properly assess the situation. However, two days after the crash, rescue teams discovered a black box in the wreckage and sent it to a civil aviation institute in Beijing. 

Black boxes record audio and data on a plane and can be analyzed in the event of a crash. Modern black boxes store data on computer chips and are designed to survive high-velocity crashes, preserving crucial sounds and voices from the cockpit, according to Bloomberg. Still, severe internal and external damage to the box has made it difficult for authorities to extract that data. Even more troubling is that the China Eastern Airlines plane passed pre-flight inspection before take-off, presenting no obvious signs of its sudden and deadly plunge. 

Monday’s crash is China’s most deadly air disaster since 1994, when a China Northwest Airlines Tuplev Tu-154 from Xi'an to Guangzhou combusted shortly after takeoff, killing all 160 passengers. Furthermore, this is the world’s largest commercial aviation-linked loss of life since 176 passengers on board a Ukraine International Airlines 737-800 were killed after it was shot down over Tehran in January 2020, as noted by Reuters. Chinese regulators have ordered sweeping air-safety reviews and have allowed the families of those killed in the crash to visit the site.