China Eastern grounds all Boeing 737-800 passenger flights after Flight MU5735 crashed with 132 on board
- China Eastern is grounding all of its Boeing 737-800 passenger flights after one crashed with 132 people on board
- The plane crashed into a Chinese mountainside about halfway through its journey Monday afternoon; no survivors had been found
Debris seen near the site of the crash. Photo: APChina Eastern is grounding all of its Boeing 737-800 passenger flights after one of its planes crashed Monday afternoon in the southern Chinese region of Guangxi, Chinese state media Yicai Global reported.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was travelling from Kunming Changshui International Airport to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport when it crashed into a mountainside about halfway through the flight.
Yicai Global reported that the plane was less than seven years old and that China had 1,200 Boeing 737-800 in service as of 2019.
China Eastern did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on grounding flights.
The cause of Monday’s crash remains unknown and the plane’s black boxes has yet to be found among the debris.
A Boeing spokesperson told Insider of the crash: “We are aware of the initial media reports and are working to gather more information.”
Officials at China Eastern Airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) told a Tuesday press conference that they had not yet found any survivors.
“No survivors have been found on China Eastern Airlines MU5735 so far,” said Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the CAAC.
Zhu confirmed there were 123 passengers and nine crew members on the flight, and that none of them were foreign. Of the nine crew members, three were pilots, he said.