After China’s worst air crash in years, a desperate hunt for survivors
Rescue workers assembled for a desperate search Tuesday for any survivors in the crash of a passenger plane carrying 132 people that plunged more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute before crashing in a remote mountain valley in southern China on Monday. China Eastern, which operated the Boeing 737-800, and the central government are investigating the cause of the accident, which is likely to be the country’s biggest aviation disaster in more than a decade. China’s air safety record has been strong in the last two decades but the crash will add another public safety concern for President Xi Jinping. For Boeing, the accident could renew the regulatory scrutiny that followed two crashes in recent years involving another plane, the 737 Max. Flight MU-5735 took off from Kunming, the capital of southwestern Yunnan Province, at 1:11 p.m., according to Flightradar24, a tracking platform. About halfway to its destination, Guangzhou, the commercial hub in southeast China, the plane was cruising at 29,100 feet. Then, about 2:20 p.m., the plane “suddenly started to lose altitude very fast,” Flightradar24 said in a tweet. It quickly descended 20,000 feet — an almost vertical drop — and appeared to briefly regain altitude around 8,000 feet before continuing its plunge, according to Flightradar24’s data. A thunderous boom then rippled across a tree-covered valley, where usually the loudest noises come from swarms of insects and villagers’ motorbikes. At first, residents in Teng County in the Guangxi region were baffled by the explosion. Rescue workers by the hundreds flooded the site but, according to initial reports, encountered only debris — including parts of a plane wing and pieces of charred cloth — in the heavily wooded, remote area. Pictures and video showed a frenzy of nighttime activity as rescuers assembled tents and command posts, setting up power supplies and lights, and lining up dozens of ambulances in the hope of finding anyone alive. Dozens of local volunteers on motorbikes carried in water, food and tents.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-03-22/sky/after-china2019s-worst-air-crash-in-years-a-desperate-hunt-for-survivors
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After China’s worst air crash in years, a desperate hunt for survivors
Rescue workers assembled for a desperate search Tuesday for any survivors in the crash of a passenger plane carrying 132 people that plunged more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute before crashing in a remote mountain valley in southern China on Monday. China Eastern, which operated the Boeing 737-800, and the central government are investigating the cause of the accident, which is likely to be the country’s biggest aviation disaster in more than a decade. China’s air safety record has been strong in the last two decades but the crash will add another public safety concern for President Xi Jinping. For Boeing, the accident could renew the regulatory scrutiny that followed two crashes in recent years involving another plane, the 737 Max. Flight MU-5735 took off from Kunming, the capital of southwestern Yunnan Province, at 1:11 p.m., according to Flightradar24, a tracking platform. About halfway to its destination, Guangzhou, the commercial hub in southeast China, the plane was cruising at 29,100 feet. Then, about 2:20 p.m., the plane “suddenly started to lose altitude very fast,” Flightradar24 said in a tweet. It quickly descended 20,000 feet — an almost vertical drop — and appeared to briefly regain altitude around 8,000 feet before continuing its plunge, according to Flightradar24’s data. A thunderous boom then rippled across a tree-covered valley, where usually the loudest noises come from swarms of insects and villagers’ motorbikes. At first, residents in Teng County in the Guangxi region were baffled by the explosion. Rescue workers by the hundreds flooded the site but, according to initial reports, encountered only debris — including parts of a plane wing and pieces of charred cloth — in the heavily wooded, remote area. Pictures and video showed a frenzy of nighttime activity as rescuers assembled tents and command posts, setting up power supplies and lights, and lining up dozens of ambulances in the hope of finding anyone alive. Dozens of local volunteers on motorbikes carried in water, food and tents.<br/>
