The crash of the China Eastern Airlines plane on March 21 may have been intentional. This will appear from the flight data on the black boxes, reports The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, citing US sources involved in the investigation.
The airline’s Boeing 737-800 was on its way from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it suddenly landed at cruising altitude and crashed into the countryside near Wuzhou city in Guangxi region. In the past few minutes, the aircraft has lost more than 9 kilometers in altitude, data from Flight Radar 24† All 132 people on board were killed.
It is unusual for a plane to crash during a cruise, because the autopilot is almost always active. According to sources from The Wall Street Journal Flight data indicate that someone in the cockpit intentionally sank the aircraft into a landing.
The so-called black boxes, which contain all flight data and recording conversations in the cockpit, are currently being investigated in the United States. According to the American newspaper, this investigation will now focus on the role of pilots. However, it cannot be ruled out that another person on the plane may have entered the cockpit, sources say.
China Eastern describes the scenario of someone else entering the cockpit as “unlikely”. He points to a statement from the China Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) regulator, which stated that the pilots did not send a distress signal.
Pilots have a good reputation
The CAAC previously stated that the pilots are qualified to fly and in good standing. They also had no financial or health problems. On April 20, the Civil Aviation Administration reported in a preliminary investigation that the aircraft was in good shape and that the weather was fine at the time of the crash. The moderator cannot be reached for comment.
China Eastern, an airline with a reputation for safety, entered the wrecked Boeing into service in June 2015. China Eastern grounded more than 200 Boeing 737-800s after the crash. A month later, the airline operated the aircraft again for the first time.
Aviation experts previously said to Watchman It is possible that the China Eastern plane was intentionally crashed. For example, the flight and crash are similar to the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 on March 24, 2015.
On that flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf, the co-pilot deliberately crashed the plane into the Alps. The co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, 27, was found to have mental health problems. As with the China Eastern flight, no distress signal was issued on that flight prior to diving.
