New Delhi: No survivors have been found – 18 hours after a China Eastern jet crashed in a mountainous region south of the country with 132 people aboard.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV said rescuers continued to sift through the wreckage of the plane, which plummeted 30,000 feet in under three minutes to crash in the hills near the city of Wuzhou in Guangxi county on Monday.
CCTV reported: “Wreckage of the plane was found at the scene, but up until now, none of those aboard the plane with whom contact was lost has been found”.
The company has grounded its entire fleet of Boeing 737-800 after the crash, China’s worst air disaster in 12 years.
President Xi Jinping has ordered an immediate probe into the crash and his deputy was personally overseeing rescue operations.
Firefighters on the scene have said there was no sign of life in the plane debris.
American behemoth Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735. We are working with our airline customers and are ready to support them. Boeing is in contact with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and our technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.”
Flight MU5735 was on its way from Kunming city to Guangzhou on Monday when it went down barely an hour before it was to land, according to FlightRadar24.
The plane was a 6-year-old Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Reuters reported: “The 737-800 model that crashed on Monday has a good safety record and is the predecessor to the 737 MAX model that has been grounded in China for more than three years following fatal crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia.”
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