Fri, May 20, 2022
Foul Play Suspected In Downing Of China Eastern Flight MU5735
On 21 March 2022, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 departed Kunming in southwest China around 1pm bound for Guangzhou near the south eastern coast, a trip that would have taken about 2 hours and perished halfway along its route in Guangxi.
Surveillance video some distance away captured what appeared to be the airplane plummeting nose first towards a wooded area in Guangxi.
Open-source Flight tracking data indicated that the airborne dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) reported the aircraft appeared to be cruising at an altitude of approximately 29,000ft, and lost all of it over the course of one minute, though it appeared to recover around 8,000ft before resuming its harrowing descent. Nearby farmers observed the aircraft going down with a loud crash, breaking up, and fire and smoke erupting from the area.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 was carrying over 120 passengers and crew, and according to an unnamed source, the flight data recorder showed flight control inputs originating from the cockpit, and that the crash did not appear to stem from other system malfunctions. It’s possible that someone gained access to the flight deck and caused the crash. Or that the one of the pilots is responsible. It is also possible that the crew became incapacitated, and the more conscious one’s initial attempt to seek a lower altitude got out of control? Other headlines are quick to state “Boeing not at fault”. Hopefully more definitive information will be forthcoming from the investigation
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