Boeing 737 passenger plane carrying 132 people crashes in China
A China Eastern Airlines passenger jet with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains of southern China in Guangxi on Monday.
The Boeing 737 plane crashed on March 21 while on a flight from the city of Kunming to Guangzhou.
Civil Aviation Administration of China said that the flight carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members had lost contact over the city of Wuzhou in Guangxi. “The plane has now been confirmed to have crashed,” they said.
The crash “caused a mountain fire” and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the scene, CCTV said.
Videos and photos from the scene showed smoke billowing from a hillside and wreckage on the ground.
Data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the plane suddenly losing speed and altitude before it stopped transmitting data.
The plane crash was described as the worst aviation disaster in China which has had a good air safety record over the past years. The safety record of the country’s airline industry has been among the best in the world over the past decade.