A Boeing 737 flown by China Eastern Airlines with 133 onboard has crashed in the rural mountain countryside near Wuzhou city, igniting a forest fire.
The Boeing 737-800 flight from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou “lost airborne contact over Wuzhou” in the Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Last ADS-B data from the aircraft was received at 06:22 UTC and was indicating a vertical speed of -31.000 feet per minute. The tracker showed the plane sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 3,225 feet (8,870 to 982 metres) in three minutes.
The safety record of the country’s airline industry has been among the best in the world over the past decade. The twin-engine, single-aisle Boeing 737 is one of the world’s most popular planes for short and medium-haul flights.
