Boeing 737 down in China...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Just off the Reuters feed.

A Boeing 737 plane carrying 133 passengers has crashed in mountains in China.

Chinese state television CGTN reported the China Eastern Airlines aircraft from Kunming to Guangzhou had an “accident” in the region of Guangxi and caused a fire on the mountains.

The jet involved in the accident was a Boeing 737 aircraft and the number of casualties was not immediately known. CGTN said rescue teams were dispatched to the scene.

An unverified video of the crash shared online shows huge plumes of smoke billowing from the mountainside near Wuzhou in southern China.

Flight data claimed to be from the flight shows the plane dropped from 24,000 to the ground in just minutes, giving crew little time to react to whatever the issue was.

[Boac]

Not good news for Boeing (or anyone else, come to that), but at least not a Max.

[tango15]

I see on TOP there are already the usual sparks flying, plus the obligatory METAR, after just a few posts. Certainly seems a strange set of circumstances though.

[Rwy in Sight]

I bet the second part of BOAC'S phrase was on most aviation people mind.

Also we can bet to get a metar within the first 5 posts in TOP

[Smeagol]

Daily Wail currently showing a video of the aircraft showing it in a terminal, vertical dive. Real?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... China.html

[Boac]

Who knows? Hole in the ground is.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Daily Wail currently showing a video of the aircraft showing it in a terminal, vertical dive. Real?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... China.html

The video shown is most likely genuine.

China Eastern Airlines flight 5735, a Boeing 737-800, crashed in a mountain range in Tengxian, Guangxi, China.
The aircraft departed Kunming Wujiaba International Airport at 05:15 UTC on a domestic passenger service to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. ADS-B flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft at 29,100 feet, flying along Airway 599 towards Guangzhou. ADS-B data released by Flightradar24 suggest the descent started between 06:20:43 and 06:20:59. Altitude datapoint show the descent stopped about 06:22:00 around 7400 feet and the aircraft climbed to about 8600 feet before the aircraft again entered a steep descent. The last recorded datapoint was at 06:22:35 at 3225 feet. CCTV footage and dashcam appears to show the aircraft in an extremely steep descent before it crashed in a wooded mountainous area.

https://aviation-safety.net/database/ca ... 321-0.html

[FD2]

Daily Wail currently showing a video of the aircraft showing it in a terminal, vertical dive. Real?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... China.html

The video shown is most likely genuine.

China Eastern Airlines flight 5735, a Boeing 737-800, crashed in a mountain range in Tengxian, Guangxi, China.
The aircraft departed Kunming Wujiaba International Airport at 05:15 UTC on a domestic passenger service to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. ADS-B flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft at 29,100 feet, flying along Airway 599 towards Guangzhou. ADS-B data released by Flightradar24 suggest the descent started between 06:20:43 and 06:20:59. Altitude datapoint show the descent stopped about 06:22:00 around 7400 feet and the aircraft climbed to about 8600 feet before the aircraft again entered a steep descent. The last recorded datapoint was at 06:22:35 at 3225 feet. CCTV footage and dashcam appears to show the aircraft in an extremely steep descent before it crashed in a wooded mountainous area.

https://aviation-safety.net/database/ca ... 321-0.html

From that video it looks like a very high speed near vertical dive followed by an extensive fire around a large hole in the ground. News channel here reports a 'search for survivors' - God help us - it also showed a photo of an A320. Papers report it as a 737-800 as GG's post says.

I shouldn't be hard as not everyone's a flyer.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Daily Wail currently showing a video of the aircraft showing it in a terminal, vertical dive. Real?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... China.html

The video shown is most likely genuine.

China Eastern Airlines flight 5735, a Boeing 737-800, crashed in a mountain range in Tengxian, Guangxi, China.
The aircraft departed Kunming Wujiaba International Airport at 05:15 UTC on a domestic passenger service to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. ADS-B flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft at 29,100 feet, flying along Airway 599 towards Guangzhou. ADS-B data released by Flightradar24 suggest the descent started between 06:20:43 and 06:20:59. Altitude datapoint show the descent stopped about 06:22:00 around 7400 feet and the aircraft climbed to about 8600 feet before the aircraft again entered a steep descent. The last recorded datapoint was at 06:22:35 at 3225 feet. CCTV footage and dashcam appears to show the aircraft in an extremely steep descent before it crashed in a wooded mountainous area.

https://aviation-safety.net/database/ca ... 321-0.html

From that video it looks like a very high speed near vertical dive followed by an extensive fire around a large hole in the ground. News channel here reports a 'search for survivors' - God help us - it also showed a photo of an A320. Papers report it as a 737-800 as GG's post says.

I shouldn't be hard as not everyone's a flyer.

They dived and then climbed before they died. Boeing are on the hook again?

My late night drunken guess is a runway trim.

[FD2]

Weren't there a series of crashes of earlier 737s that were to do with elevator trim problems?

[Undried Plum]

I shared a desk with Byron at an NTSB Hearing in Baltimore on another matter. Good bloke.

You may have to enlarge the page on your browser to read the text, but reading all of it, in sequence, is well worth the trouble.


https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... miter.html

https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... index.html

https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... index.html

[Undried Plum]

https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... index.html

https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... index.html

https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news ... index.html

Being based in Boeing's hometown and working for that town's main newspaper, he almost got fired/banned for each one of those articles. Afterwards he was given a Pulitzer Prize for them all.

Good bloke.

[Pinky the pilot]

So-called 'Aviation Expert' GT here in Australia has been reported in TOP as saying 'Pilot Suicide.'

[AtomKraft]

Well, this really is one of those where there's little point in speculating- but my money will be on some sort of loss of control due to getting the THS into the wrong place, coupled with reduced crew proficiency, likely associated with not flying much.

I did hear on the radio that the fin wasn't evident in the video. Surely in this day and age, that sort of structural failure on such a new a/c shouldn't happen? (although that Dutch rolling KC-135 and the Airbus that tore its own tail off over NYC both managed it), but I guess if the fin seperated, a big nose down would likely follow.

There's really no need for a modern jet to do what this one clearly did.

[PHXPhlyer]

Tried to look in R&N on TOP but not allowed in.
Don't know why.
Record of my posts has disappeared.
Don't know what's going on with that place.

PP

[admin2]

You should be able to see all topics there if you don't try to log in.

[tango15]

You haven't missed much, PHX. Just the usual speculation, followed by the usual arguments, followed by graphs, including those from FR24, which are promptly refuted. Also, comparisons with every other aviation accident since the Hindenburg it seems.
The thing I wonder about, not directly connected to the accident I assume, is the 'heavy' crew. Seems like a lot of folk for a relatively short domestic sector, but what I know about ops in China could be written on the back of what is these days a very expensive postage stamp.

Lots of discontent on TOP, with mods being openly criticised, but not replying.

[Rwy in Sight]

t15 probably a training flight or maybe one to help the crew for recency after a long break from flying

[John Hill]

I assume a vertical dive requires a lot of effort (up on the horizontal stabilizer) to keep it in the dive? Is so we can forget about bombs, collision, missile etc.

Would it even be possible for a suicidal pilot to keep it in the dive?

(Shows how much I know..)

[G-CPTN]

Apparently, some of the published video has been generated on a simulator (X-plane was mentioned) and is not 'genuine' real-world footage.