Boeing 737 China Eastern Airlines Plane Crashes With 132 Aboard

A Boeing 737-800 jet flying for China Eastern carrying 132 people crashed Monday, after losing contact with ground control over the city of Wuzou in a mountainous region of China known as Guangxi. It was meant to be only a two-hour regional flight from Kunming to Guangzhou.

China’s Civil Aviation Administration confirmed the crash on Monday and said it “activated the emergency mechanism and dispatched a working group to the scene.” An official death toll has not been confirmed of the 123 passengers and nine crew members that were on board.

Representatives from Chinese state media also revealed that the crash caused a mountain fire, and because of the remote location and bad weather, emergency vehicles have had trouble accessing the crash site.

The airline’s official statement said, “The cause of the plane crash is still under investigation. The company expresses its sorrowful condolences to the passengers and crew embers who died in this plane crash.” Boeing has simply confirmed they are “aware” of the crash and are “working to gather more information.”

This is the latest in a series of manufacturing disasters for Boeing, including a mass grounding of all 737 Max jets in 2019 when two of the Boeing planes crashed fatally in a five-month span. The 737 Max was cleared by most countries besides China to return to service. The plane in Monday’s crash was not the Max, but the 737NG.

China Eastern Airlines grounded all of the same model planes the same day and announced it had opened a hotline for families of the victims to call in. They also changed the colors of their website to black-and-white in remembrance of the tragedy, a tradition among airlines after a crash.