No survivors found after Boeing 737 crashes in China, with 132 on board
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chinese officials said no survivors were found after a Boeing 737 jet crashed in China with 132 people on board, making it that country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade.
China Eastern Airlines' flight MU5735 vanished from radar and crashed early Monday morning in Teng county near Wuzhou and "caused a mountain fire," state broadcaster CCTV said, citing the provincial emergency management bureau.
The Boeing 737-800 from Kunming city to the southern hub of Guangzhou "lost airborne contact over Wuzhou" city in the Guangxi region, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said earlier.
The crash site was about 150 miles from the destination of Guangzhou, meaning the aircraft had traveled about 500 miles before coming down.
The plane was carrying 123 passengers and 9 flight crew members, and there have been no signs of any survivors.
Terrifying footage shared on social media from a local news source in China shows the Boeing 737 plummeting straight down into a mountainous area near the city of Wuzhou and disappearing. Flames and smoke could be seen rising from the hillside.
Information on the plane tracking website Flightradar24 stopped transmitting just over an hour into the flight. Tracking data shows the flight was traveling at a normal cruising altitude, when it suddenly went into a deep dive
Rescue crews raced to the area where the China Eastern flight crashed. Hundreds of firefighters were sent to the scene, hoping to find survivors, but found only debris and fire.
The rugged terrain could make this a difficult rescue mission and impact what's likely to be a lengthy investigation.
The plane was delivered to China Eastern in 2015, and had been flying for more than six years.
The twin-engine, single aisle Boeing 737 is one of the world's most widely-used passenger jets for short and medium-haul flights. China Eastern operates various versions of the 737, including the 737-800, which crashed on Monday, and the 737 Max, which was grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes.
China's aviation regulator only cleared the Max to return to service late last year — the last national regulator to do so in a major travel market.
Chicago-based Boeing has agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in penalties and compensation to settle criminal charges filed by federal prosecutors accusing the company of conspiring to defraud the FAA over design flaws in its 737 Max airplanes, which were involved in two deadly crashes months apart.
Under the agreement, Boeing agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $243.6 million, $500 million in compensation to the survivors of the 346 passengers killed in the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, and $1.77 billion in compensation to Boeing's airline customers.
Boeing's entire fleet of 737 Max fleet was grounded for nearly two years following an airliner crash in Ethiopia in March 2019, which came just five months after another 737 Max crash in Indonesia in October 2018.
Boeing also has agreed to a more than $237 million settlement with shareholders over its 737-Max crashes.
As part of the deal, Boeing had to add another director to its board with aviation, engineering or product safety experience.
The settlement also required Boeing to publish yearly public reports on safety-related enhancements.
Separately, last May, the company was hit with a $17 million fine and promised to take steps to fix production problems with its 737 jets. The company could pay up to $10 million more if it does not fix quality-control issues.
The FAA says the settlement covers the installation of unapproved sensors and other parts on some of Boeing's 737 models.
Crashes of the 737-Max jets in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave said the 737-800 is part of the "next generation" family of Boeing's 737 line-up. More than 7,000 have been built, with fewer than 25 accidents that rendered the planes unusable since they first took flight in 1997. Van Cleave said unverified video purportedly showing the plane in a steep nose-down dive right before it crashed matches the early flight data available from flight tracking websites. The incredibly steep dive shown in the video — a near-90 degree angle — is very unusual in an aviation accident.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority told CBS News in a statement on Monday that it was "aware of reports that a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed" in China. The agency said it stood ready to assist in the crash investigation "if asked" to do so by Chinese authorities, along with the National Transportation Safety Board, but it noted that China would take the lead by default.
One villager told a local news site that the plane involved in the crash had "completely fallen apart" and he had seen nearby forest areas destroyed by a fire caused when the plane crashed onto the mountainside.
The crash could become one of China's worst air disasters in more than a decade.
China had enjoyed an enviable air safety record in recent years in a country criss-crossed by newly built airports and serviced by new airlines established to match the country's breakneck growth over the last few decades.
A Henan Airlines flight crashed in northeastern Heilongjiang province in 2010, killing at least 42 out of 92 people on board although the final toll was never confirmed.
It was the last Chinese commercial passenger flight crash that caused civilian casualties. The deadliest Chinese commercial flight crash was a China Northwest Airlines crash in 1994 which killed all 160 onboard.
Most of the passengers onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were from China.
