China plane crashes with 132 on board in Guangxi region

A China Eastern Boeing 737 with 133 onboard has crashed and caused a mountain fire in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. The number of casualties is not clear yet. State media reported the plane, MU 5735 took off from Kunming Changshui airport in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province at 13:15 hrs, and was scheduled to arrive at Guangzhou at 15:07 hrs. Media cited a rescue official as saying the plane had disintegrated and caused a fire destroying bamboo trees. The People's Daily quoted a provincial firefighting department official as saying there was no sign of life among the scattered debris.The aircraft, with 123 passengers and nine crew on board, lost contact over the city of Wuzhou, China's Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the airline said.

Unfortunate News of Huge plane crash coming from China!
China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed in southern China today. The plane was carrying 123 passengers and 9 flight crew members. pic.twitter.com/GTOtm7u7sD

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) March 21, 2022

The plane was six years old, had been cruising at an altitude 29,100 feet at 0620 GMT. Just over two minutes and 15 seconds later, data showed it had descended to 9,075 feet. In another 20 seconds, its last tracked altitude was 3,225 feet, indicating a vertical descent of 31,000 feet per minute, Flightradar24 said. Online weather data showed partly cloudy conditions with good visibility in Wuzhou at the time of the crash. President Xi Jinping called for investigators to determine the cause of the crash as soon as possible and to ensure "absolute" aviation safety, state broadcaster CCTV reported.