© Ng Han Guan
Photo: AP.
A passenger plane crashed in China on Monday in the southern province of Guangxi with 132 people on board, causing a fire in a mountain, according to state media.
Rescuers arrived at the scene, and for the time being The number of deaths or injuries left by the incident is unknown. There were 123 passengers and nine crew members on the plane, according to the agency, which corrected previous reports that spoke of 133 people on board.
The plane is a China Eastern Boeing 737 near the city of Wuzhou in Teng county, according to the China Civil Aviation Administration. The plane was traveling from Kunming, in the western province of Yunnan, to the industrial hub of Guangzhou.along the eastern coast, the agency said in a statement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a “maximum effort” in the rescue operation.that post-crash management was done appropriately and that potential safety risks were investigated to ensure the complete safety of civil aviation.
The state newspaper People’s Daily indicated that 117 rescuers have already arrived at the scene. The Guangxi fire department for its part coordinates a team of 650 people heading there from three directions.
The Civil Aviation Administration said it had dispatched a team of specialists and the Guangxi fire service said it was working to control a mountain fire sparked by the crash.
NASA satellite images showed a huge fire right in the area where the plane had crashed.
China Eastern Flight 5735 was traveling at regarding 30,000 feet altitude when suddenly, just following 0620 GMT, the plane began to descend rapidly at its cruising speed of 455 knots. (842 kilometers or 523 miles per hour), according to data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The data suggested that the plane had crashed within a minute and a half of when something went wrong.
The plane stopped transmitting data just southwest of the Chinese city of Wuzhou.
The twin-engine, single-aisle Boeing 737 is one of the world’s most popular aircraft.or for short and medium distance journeys. It was initially unclear which version of the model was involved in the crash, as China Eastern operates several versions of the popular aircraft, including the 737-800 and 737 Max.
The 737 Max version was grounded for two years following two fatal accidents. The Chinese aviation regulator gave the green light for the model to return to operation at the end of last year.the last major market in the world to resume its services.
China Eastern is one of China’s big three airlines.
The last fatal accident involving a civil aircraft in China was in 2010.