China Plane Was Flying at Speed of Sound Before It Crashed With 132 Onboard

Mud-stained wallets. Bank cards. Official identity cards. Some of the personal effects of 132 lives presumed lost were lined up by rescue workers scouring a remote mountainside Tuesday for the wreckage of a China Eastern plane that one day earlier inexplicably fell from the sky and burst into a huge fireball.

(Photo: AP/PTI)

The China Eastern Airlines Corp jet that crashed on Monday, 21 March, with 132 people onboard, was traveling nearly at the speed of sound – moments before it strangely nosedived into a hillside, according to a Bloomberg News review of flight-track data.

The Boeing Co 737-800 was flying at more than 640 miles (966 kilometers) per hour, and at times may have exceeded 700 mph, according to data from Flightradar24, a website that tracks planes.

Data also showed that the plane dropped down from 29,100 ft in just one minute. The speed and angle of the plane crash indicates that the plane crashed with a huge force, diminishing the possibility of finding any survivors.

Further, such an impact may also complicate the task for investigators as it can destroy evidence and, in rare cases, even damage a plane's data and voice recorders that are designed to withstand most crashes.

Rough Terrain and Rainfall Hamper Rescue Ops

Flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, an estimated two-hour flight path.

Meanwhile, rough terrain and rainfall at the crash site hampered the search and rescue mission on Wednesday, while searchers used hand tools, drones and sniffer dogs to comb the crash site and a debris field spread across the forest, Bloomberg reported.

After the crash, China Eastern had said it will ground all of its Boeing 737-800 jets from Tuesday. China Eastern had also changed its website colours to black and white on Monday as a sign of mourning.

Contact With Pilots Was Lost After Plane Started Dropping

An air-traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane's altitude drop sharply, but got no reply, Zhu Tao, director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Authority of China, said at a Tuesday evening news conference.

Sun Shiying, a China Eastern official, said at Tuesday night’s briefing, according to the South China Morning Post, that the nine crew members were experienced and in good health.

The public security department has taken control of the crash site.