The captain of Pan Am 212 later estimated that the two aircraft had passed between 200 and 500 feet (60 and 150m) of each other, while the first officer estimated that the distance was only 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90m). [5]:5 The airplane was traveling at 227 miles per hour (197kn; 365km/h) when it hit the ground. Boeing also said that its technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration also said that it is ready to assist in an investigation if asked. It is part of the SkyTeam Alliance and U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) holds a 2% stake. It also has relationships with Chinese airline and helicopter operators, and many components in Airbus jets are made by Chinese companies. Aviation data provider OAG said this month that state-owned China Eastern Airlines was the world's sixth-largest carrier by scheduled weekly seat capacity. Martin Pollard is China Correspondent based in Beijing covering politics and general news. "When she picked up the phone, she choked up," said Yan, adding that he had a "heavy heart" when he heard the news. [5]:4 In the next 70 seconds, the airplane lost only 250ft (76m), but this was enough to trigger the altitude warning C-chord chime located under the engineer's workstation. The flight is referenced as part of the Bob Welch song "The Ghost of Flight 401" on his 1979 album Three Hearts. Commercial air traffic has not fully rebounded to pre-Covid levels, and a recent jump in coronavirus cases has prompted new restrictions and dampened demand for travel. In an interview on state-owned TV, Ou Ling, a fire department official in Guangxi, noted that the crash site is a depression that is surrounded by mountains on three sides, adding that there is no electricity at the site.. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. The captain makes a successful emergency landing at Boston Logan International Airport and the hijacker is arrested. CNN's Pete Muntean reports. China Eastern and its subsidiaries have grounded 223 Boeing 737-800 jets for safety checks, a third of their overall fleet. First published on April 6, 2022 / 4:31 AM. Lines for fuel in Cubas capital Havana snaked for blocks on Wednesday as frustrated citizens waited for hours, and in some cases days, to fill their tanks, the latest chapter in a growing economic crisis that is rattling the Caribbean island nation. [5]:3, The cockpit crew removed the light assembly,[6]:102 and Second Officer Repo was dispatched to the avionics bay beneath the flight deck to check via a small porthole whether the landing gear was indeed down. The names of the pilots have not been officially released, although a state-owned newspaper in Hong Kong published them anyway. Chinese officials have closely guarded much of the information about the crash. [5]:23 Investigators believe this was due to the crew being distracted by the nose gear light, and because the flight engineer was not in his seat when it sounded, so would not have been able to hear it. The United States approved the plane for flight again in late 2020, spurring similar approval from other countries around the world. On the night of February 8, 1965, the aircraft serving the flight, a Douglas DC-7, crashed near Jones Beach State Park, New York, just after taking off from JFK Airport. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. The crash left a 65-foot-deep crater in a mountainside, shattered the plane and set off a fire in the surrounding forest. The crash of a Boeing airliner in China on Monday follows years of upheaval for the American manufacturer, raising the prospect of renewed regulatory scrutiny and sending its stock sharply lower. Monday's disaster was the first fatal crash for China Eastern since 2004, when a plane crashed shortly after it took off from an airport in north China, killing 55, according to ASN. A China Eastern Airliner jet crashed in the mountains of southern China according to China's Civil Aviation Administration. Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 was a domestic passenger flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Atlanta, Georgia, with scheduled stopovers at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York; Richmond, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Greenville, South Carolina. WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - Here are some facts about the Boeing (BA.N) 737-800 jet and China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS), involved in a crash on a domestic flight on Monday with 132 people on board. Workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 24, 2022. Thus, the switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, thus depriving the first officer of any indication the mode had changed (channel A provides the captain's instruments with data, while channel B provides the first officer's). We are working with our airline customer and are ready to support them.. But they didnt see any remains, he told the news service. Plumes of smoke floated over the clusters of bamboo and banana trees. That is because Chinese airlines have been among the worlds biggest buyers of new planes over the past decade, as rising prosperity in China has fed a big surge in domestic and international air travel. Instantly initiate the emergency response mechanisms and put everything into organizing search and rescue, Mr. Xi said in instructions issued by Chinese official news outlets. The air crash the countrys first big aviation disaster in over a decade will add to the issues facing him amid the pandemic and a war in Ukraine. The crash was documented in Rob and Sarah Elder's 1977 book Crash. At the end of the search last week, rescuers said they had recovered 49,117 pieces from the wreck. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. The accident is the third-worst accident involving a DC-7. Searchers uncovered the plane's cockpit voice recorder on March 27, sending it to Beijing. The country is perhaps more crucial for Boeings leading rival, Airbus. Check out what's clicking on FoxBusiness.com. Until the pandemic, Chinese airlines hired a sizable share of their pilots from overseas, as air travel grew faster than Chinas ability to train its own pilots. The NTSB also sent investigators to China to assist in the inquiry. The plane was carrying 132 people, including 123 passengers and 9 crew members, according to the civil aviation administration. With the aircraft in mid-turn, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and the left landing gear,[5]:8 making three trails through the sawgrass, each 5ft (1.5m) wide and more than 100ft (30m) long. James Hall, Flight Operations and Safety, Miami office, had the task of notifying all the families of the crash victims. Only one out of the 19 onboard survive. Air traffic control then radioed Flight 663 a similar advisory: at 2 o'clock, five miles away traveling, below Flight 663's position. [4], Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a regularly scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida. The plane was not a Boeing 737 Max, a model that has not resumed flying in China after a ban prompted by deadly crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. There's a big fire going out on the water here about our 2 o'clock position right now. On Monday, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed in southern China with 132 people onboard. All Rights Reserved. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Pictures and video showed a frenzy of activity as the rescuers poured into the area, assembling tents and command posts, setting up power supplies and lights, and lining up dozens of ambulances in the hope of finding anyone alive. The disintegration of the aircraft that followed scattered wreckage over an area 1,600ft (500m) long and 330ft (100m) wide in a southwesterly direction. China Eastern Airlines crash that killed 132 may have been intentional: report Chinese airliner crash led to Boeing 737-800s being grounded by China's four The Boeing 737-800 is part of the 737 family, the world's most-flown commercial aircraft series. China Eastern is one of China's four major airlines, and each of the airlines has grounded all Boeing 737-800s as a precaution. Two passengers died. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File / AP Newsroom), Rescuers carry a piece of plane wreckage at the site of Monday's plane crash in Tengxian County, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 25, 2022. It wouldnt cause a nosedive, and it is possible it broke off as the plane approached supersonic speeds during its descent, he said. China Eastern Airlines' official website has turned black and white following the crash of a Boeing 737 on Monday. The plane was in the far east of the Guangxi region, where weather reports dont suggest any possible contributing factors. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. But there has been an important holdout: China, which had been expected to clear the plane to resume flying in the coming months. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Please enter valid email address to continue. No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. The plane crashed into the south side of the 21,000-foot Mount Illimani at an elevation of 19,600 feet, killing all 29 people on board, including eight Americans, one of But his promise of accountability for the crash will raise expectations for a quick and thorough inquiry into why the China Eastern Airlines flight plunged to the ground. appreciated. Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo, who was down in the nose electronics bay with Repo at the moment of impact. China has been designing its own alternative to the Boeing 737-800 that crashed on Monday. More than 49,000 pieces of plane debris were found. 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