Rescue efforts continue in southern Chinawhere this Monday a Boeing 737-800 of the airline crashed China Eastern with 132 people on board, although the chances of finding survivors are remote.
More than 24 hours after the catastrophe, the authorities still they have not issued any official part of victims.
The airplane It was traveling between the cities of Kunming (southwest) and Guangzhou (southeast) and took off at 1:15 p.m. local time (05:15 GMT) on Monday before crashing to land in the Guangxi region at 2:38 p.m. local time (06:38 GMT).
The discovery of the black boxes has not been reported either, and the causes of the incident are still being investigated.
steep descent
“The airplane he plummeted and appeared to be in one piece during the descent. A few seconds later, she crashed, “says a resident of the area quoted by the state agency Xinhua.
The testimony of witnesses and some unverified videos circulating in the Chinese media – show the fall of the airplane in a dive- fit with the data from the FlightRadar24 flight tracking portal: the aircraft was flying at 2:19 p.m. local time (06:19 GMT) at an altitude of 29,100 feet (8,870 meters) when, about 55 kilometers west of the town of Wuzhou , began to descend.
The last point of contact of the flight, according to the portal, was about 25 kilometers southwest of Wuzhou, at an altitude of 3,225 feet (989 meters), at 2:22 p.m. local time (06:22 GMT), which would mean that in just three minutes the plane descended almost 8,000 meters.
Difficult rescue tasks
The accident caused a forest fire in the remote and mountainous area, posing a challenge to rescue teams, who reported difficulties in getting fire trucks to the vicinity.
One local described to Xinhua seeing a “big hole” at the impact site, around which were “downed trees within a radius of 12 meters.”
The fire was extinguished on Monday afternoon and the rescuers, among whom there were more than 1,000 firefighters, were able to access the scene of the incident, where soldiers sent by the chinese armywhich mobilized some of its troops in the area to collaborate in the search, which lasted through the night and continues today.
“There are pieces of the plane’s wing, some between two and three meters. There are also debris and debris, some of which are probably pieces of clothing,” described a worker quoted by Xinhua.
The Guangxi Health Commission also dispatched 36 ambulances and 80 medical workers to the area to assist possible survivors, and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He went to the scene to supervise the operations.
Cina Eastern cancels flights
China Eastern today canceled more than 1,900 flights in the Asian country, a figure that represents around 90% of those that should operate today throughout the Chinese territory.
The airline, the second largest in the country by number of passengersordered that all its Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the model of the crashed plane, remain on the ground until more information is available about what happened, according to the local press.
The event has caused falls in the stock market value of China Eastern: Its shares fell 6.15% today on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and 6.3% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it is also listed.
Other Chinese companies such as Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines also decided to ground its 737-800s for now.
According to data provided by Sina Finance, 23 Chinese airlines have 737-800 models in their fleet, and this Tuesday 853 flights of said model were planned in the Asian country.
Boeing shares fell 3.59% on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
network surveillance
Some of the main social networks in the country such as Weibo or the national version of the short video application Tiktok, Douyin, announced that they will eliminate the accounts of users who joke about the event or who use it as an or commercial claim.
“Most netizens are following the development of the situation or praying for the victims, but some made fun of the accident or ridiculed him,” Weibo explained in a statement, which “firmly” opposes this type of behavior.
Weibo, which has temporarily or indefinitely blocked 25 accounts for violating these rules, asked its users to express their opinions “rationally” and urged them “not to post messages lacking empathy.” (EFE)