A plane belonging to the Chinese airline China Eastern Airlines has crashed. According to Chinese state television and the Xinhua agency, the accident happened near the city of Wuzhou in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi. Nothing is known about the victims and the cause. The aviation authority in Beijing confirmed the crash. There were 132 people on board, including nine crew members. In the first reports, there had been talk of 133 inmates.
According to initial information, it is a Boeing 737–800NG. She was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, flight number was MU5735. Videos on the Internet that have not yet been verified show how a fire apparently broke out in the mountains. Rescue workers are on their way, the state broadcaster CCTV reported. according to the flight track, which can be seen on Flightradar 24, the machine’s signal broke off at 2:22 p.m. local time (7:22 a.m. German time) south-east of Wuzhou, a good 250 kilometers west of Guangzhou. According to the flight data, the machine flew for about an hour at an altitude of almost nine kilometers. At around 2:19 p.m., she suddenly dropped.
The state-owned airline China Eastern is the market leader in China and the world’s number six in the industry, according to aviation data provider OAG. China is known for its high standards in aviation. Most recently, a regional jet crashed in 2010, killing 44 of the 96 people on board. Also the Boeing 737-800 is one of the machines that are considered safe. She is the forerunner of the misfortune model 737 MAXwhich was phased out for years after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.