WASHINGTON: US investigators believe someone on board designedly crashed a China Eastern flight in March, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, in what was China’s deadliest air disaster in decades.
China Eastern flight MU5375 was traveling from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it inexplicably plunged from an altitude of bases into a mountainside, killing all 132 people on board.
So-called black box flight data reporters recovered from the point were transferred to the United States for analysis.
That data shows that someone — conceivably an airman or someone who had forced their way into the cockpit — input orders to shoot the Boeing 737-800 into a dive, according to Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the inquiry.
“ The airplane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” the Journal quoted “ a person who’s familiar with American officers’ primary assessment” as saying.
US officers believe their conclusion is backed up by the fact that Chinese investigators have so far not indicated any problems with the aircraft or flight controls that could have caused the crash and would need to be addressed in unborn breakouts, the review said. According to a report from Boeing, investigators plant no substantiation of “ anything abnormal,” China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) said in April.
In a statement, the CAAC said staff had met safety conditions before takeoff, the airplane wasn’t carrying dangerous goods, and didn’t appear to have run into tempestuous rainfall, though the agency said a full disquisition could take time.
