A Boeing 737 crashes with 132 people on board

A airplane with 132 people on board crashed this Monday in a mountainous area of China when he covered the route between kunmingthe capital of the southeastern province of Yunnan, and guangzhouin the southwestern province of guangdong. The reasons for the accident are unknown and if there survivorsbut the chances are slim. An official on the ground has revealed to the local press that the ship has been totally shattered and the recordings of neighbors show the calls and a dense plume of smoke over a mountainous area. Another video taken from a mine six kilometers from the accident shows the plane plummeting, suggesting that it was already missing the wings to glide. A firefighter quoted by the ‘People’s Daily’ has revealed the absence of signs of life within the fuselage.

The plane had taken off with 123 passengers and nine crew members at 1:11 p.m. (local time) and was due to land at 3:05 p.m., but its trail was lost at 2:22 p.m. when it was flying over the city of Wuzhou (Guangxi province). The latest web data FlightRadar24 reveal a very steep descent of 8,000 meters in just three minutes. The first rescue teams had already arrived in the area by mid-afternoon after saving the steep orography. “We have sent 117 firefighters and 25 trucks but the scene of the accident is very remote and nestled in the middle of the mountains. The trucks have not been able to approach the wreckage of the plane and the firefighters have had to reach it on foot,” an official from the local fire department told the national press.

Waiting for the black box

“It is very likely that the plane lost engine power when it was in the cruise phase and that it prevented the pilot from controlling it. It is a very serious technical failure that inevitably causes the plane to fall at high speed,” said Wang Yanan, an expert aeronautical, in the newspaper ‘Global Times’. It will be necessary the black box to reveal the causes. Accidents during cruise flight are rare despite the fact that it covers the bulk of the journey. They barely account for 13% while the runway approach and landing reach 54%, according to data from the American construction company Boeing.

The damaged plane is a Boeing 737 with less than seven years of life that belongs to Eastern China, one of the three major airlines in the country. The company has set up a phone line for relatives and sent a team to the scene of the accident. The reactions from the dome were agile. President, Xi Jinping, ordered the emergency mechanism to be activated and the causes of the accident to be found out. Premier Li Keqiang has prioritized searching for survivors and caring for relatives. And the State Council has dispatched various officials to deal with the crisis and shore up civil aviation safety.

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The floors reflected the consequences of the accident. The airline’s shares fell 6.5% on the Hong Kong stock market and 17% on the US stock market. Boeing left 6.4% of its price. The accident comes at the worst of times. The construction company was eager for China to allow its 737 MAX to fly again after more than three years on the ground due to the accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The objective is complicated and, in addition, China Eastern has interrupted the use of the 109 units of the 737 until it was clarified what failed on its flight on Monday.

The plane crash has shocked a country where they are in short supply. China has one of the best security records in the world, its last stain dates back 12 years and experts recalled this Monday the scrupulous protocols of the Civil Aviation Agency of China. The sector has grown steadily in recent decades, in the heat of the economic boom and the expansion of the middle class, and today it is essential for Boeing and Airbus to balance their annual balance sheets.