Chinese media carried brief highway video footage from a vehicle’s dashcam apparently showing a jet diving to the ground behind trees at an angle of about 35 degrees off vertical that was later confirmed to be China Eastern Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board. News outlets immediately reported the incident confirming Flight MU5735 have crashed in mountains in southern China on Monday after a sudden plunge from cruising altitude at about the time when it would normally start to descend ahead of its landing.
Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong, when it crashed.
Rescuers on the scene, firefighters, police officers and paramilitary troops, found debris and fires, and a lack of electricity hampered rescue efforts overnight. Search efforts are set to continue into Tuesday, although it was unclear if any of the 132 crew and passengers survived the plane crash.
China Eastern Airlines said the cause of the crash is under investigation. Such accidents typically involve multiple factors and experts warned it was far too early to draw any conclusions on the potential causes, especially in light of the scarce information available.
Investigators will be scouring the wreckage and flight recorders for factors that could have caused the plane to plummet vertically and slam into the mountains at high speed.
“The situation with casualties remains unclear,” said an online report issued by Chinese state television.
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