The Civil Aviation Administration in China today issued a preliminary report on the fatal accident of flight MU5735 with 132 people on board, assuring that the plane was flying normally until it crashed suddenly.
According to the report, the vehicle had no problems during either takeoff or the first hour of flight and maintained communication with the control towers.
However, shortly after entering Guangzhou’s control zone, it “deviated in altitude”, failed to respond to the warning issued, and then disappeared from radar.
The report stated that the crew had the required qualifications to complete the route, that there had been no technical failures prior to the crossing, and that there had been no hazardous materials on board the aircraft.
The black boxes were badly damaged and experts are still working on their decryption, the text added.
China Eastern Airlines passenger flight MU5735 crashed March 21 in the mountains of Zhang Autonomous Region of Guangxi (south) en route from Kunming to Guangzhou with 123 passengers and nine crew members on board.
Last week, China’s civil aviation authority denied information suggesting that a co-pilot was responsible for the accident and the alleged completion of the flight recorder analysis.
Members of the United States National Transportation Safety Board joined the investigation, and a team of analysts is working to reconstruct the trajectory of the plane, a Boeing 737-800 with more than six years in service.
In the wake of the event, the Chinese government ordered a wide-ranging review of security systems across the country’s socioeconomic sectors, and President Xi Jinping called the air tragedy a “warning bell” amid recurring deadly incidents in sectors such as transportation, construction and coal mining.