Chinese Boeing crashes with 132 people on board, no sign of survivors
A China Eastern Airlines
Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in mountains in southern China on a domestic
flight on Monday and media said there was no sign of survivors.
The plane was flying from the southwestern city of Kunming,
capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, bordering Hong
Kong.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.
"Can confirm the plane has crashed," China Eastern
Airlines said in a statement in which it also gave details of a hotline for
relatives of those on board.
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.
The flight left Kunming at 1:11 p.m. (0511 GMT), FlightRadar24
data showed, and had been due to land in Guangzhou at 3:05 p.m. (0705 GMT).
The plane, which Flightradar24 said 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.
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