China’s Plane Crash

Dhruthi Mahesh

On March 21st, flight MU5735’s crash prompted President Xi Jinping to start a full scale investigation. “It’s very unconventional for a plane to be cruising and then suddenly dive like this,” (Dr Brown, BBC). This Chinese aircraft was flying towards Guangzhou from Kunming when it nose-dived and crashed into a forest in Guangxi just an hour after takeoff. 

             The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800- a model known to be very reliable in the industry. A flight tracker showed the plane cruising at 29,100 ft, then suddenly plunging to around 9,075 ft two minutes and fifteen seconds later causing investigators to come up with two main theories: failure of the plane’s horizontal tail or sabotage. The purpose of a plane’s horizontal tail is to maintain the aircraft’s trim and work by creating an upwards force that ensures the plane remains horizontal during the flight. When the stabilizer stalls, it causes the aircraft to plummet and nose-dive, similar to what happened to flight MU5735. The other possible explanation is sabotage which has unfortunately been an explanation for numerous aircraft crashes in history. It has been confirmed that there were three pilots on the aircraft and that the pilots and their families lived harmoniously. There also has not been any evidence of the crash being sabotage-related. 

There were no found survivors of the crash, and China Eastern claimed that it will help around 110 families that have lost a family member. This crash has come to shock many around the world because of how well known Chinese airlines are for the safety of their passengers and crew. Last year, China recorded over 100 million hours of safe flights which is the longest compared to any other nation. China also has stricter aviation regulations and was one of the last countries to resume the flight of Boeing 737 Max aircrafts after the grounding of those aircrafts following the Ethiopian Airline crash.