Washington: Investigators probing the crash of a China Eastern Airlines jet are examining whether it was due to intentional action taken on the flight deck, with no evidence so far of a technical malfunction, two people briefed on the matter said.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Tuesday that flight data from the Boeing 737-800’s black boxes indicated that someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane, citing people familiar with U.S. officials’ preliminary assessment. Boeing Co, the maker of the jet, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declined to comment and referred questions to Chinese regulators.
The Boeing 737-800, en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed on March 21 in the mountains of Guangxi, after a sudden plunge from cruising altitude, killing all 123 passengers and nine crew members aboard. It was mainland China’s deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years. The pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers and nearby planes during the rapid descent, authorities have said. One source said that investigators were looking at whether the crash was a voluntary act.
Screenshots of the Wall Street Journal story appeared to be censored both on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo and messaging app Wechat on Wednesday morning. The hashtag topics China Eastern and China Eastern black boxes are banned on Weibo, which cited a breach of relevant laws, and users are unable to share the story in group chats on Wechat.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said on April 11 in response to rumours on the internet of a deliberate crash, said that the speculation had gravely misled the public and interfered with the accident investigation work. China Eastern did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal said the airline had said in a statement that no evidence had emerged that could determine whether or not there were any problems with the accident aircraft. The Chinese Embassy declined to comment.
The 737-800 is a widely flown predecessor to Boeing’s 737 MAX but does not have the systems that have been linked to fatal 737-MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that led to a lengthy grounding of the MAX. China Eastern grounded its entire fleet of 737-800 planes after the crash, but resumed flights in mid-April in a move widely seen at the time as ruling out any immediate new safety concern over Boeing`s previous and still most widely used model.
A final report into the causes could take two years or more to compile, Chinese officials have said. Analysts say most crashes are caused by a cocktail of human and technical factors.