Flight data from a black box recovered from the China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed in China's Guangxi in March and killed all 132 passengers and crew on board, has indicated that someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, 17 May, citing people familiar with United States officials' preliminary assessment of the accident.
On 21 March, Flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou on an estimated two-hour flight path when it plummeted from cruising altitude and crashed in a heavily forested area of the Guangxi region. Data from global flight tracker Flightradar24 showed that the Boeing 737 plane dropped down from 29,100 ft in just one minute.
The black box data suggested "inputs to the controls pushed the plane into the fatal dive," per WSJ.
"The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit," a person familiar with the preliminary assessment said.
More About the Investigation
The Boeing 737-800 had two flight recorders. One was located in the rear passenger cabin, and the other serves as a cockpit voice recorder.
The assessment includes an analysis of information extracted from the plane's damaged flight data recorder.
Underpinning the American officials' assessment, the person further said that Chinese authorities so far have not flagged any mechanical or flight-control problems with the plane. The model is considered to have one of the best safety records in commercial flying.
Meanwhile, a Western official told Reuters that the focus was now on the crew's actions as no indication of a technical malfunction was found during the preliminary investigation.
Based on the information gathered so far, US officials involved in the investigation have turned their investigation to the actions of the pilot, people familiar with the matter said. According to the WSJ, there is also a possibility that someone else on the plane could have broken into the cockpit and deliberately caused the crash, the people said.
The US officials' preliminary assessment hasn't been reported before.
Meanwhile, in a statement to WSJ, China Eatern said that "no evidence had emerged that could determine whether or not there were any problems with the aircraft involved in the accident". The airline said the pilots' health, family and financial conditions were good.
Boeing Co declined to comment on the matter and referred questions to Chinese regulators. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also did not immediately comment.
Background
On 27 March, Chinese state-run media outlet People's Daily had reported that parts of the wreckage of the missing aircraft had been found.
Following the crash, China Eastern had said it will ground all of its Boeing 737-800 jets from 22 March. In mid-April, they resumed services.
In India, the chief of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Arun Kumar had said that all Boeing 737 fleets of Indians would be put on 'enhanced surveillance' after the plane crash in China.
SpiceJet, Vistara, and Air India Express have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleets.
(With inputs from Reuters and WSJ.)
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