A passenger aircraft with over 130 folks on board crashed on Monday afternoon in a mountainous space of southern China, the Civil Aviation Administration of China confirmed, prompting rescue groups to hurry to the steep, closely wooded web site in hope of discovering survivors.
The Boeing 737 aircraft, operated by China Japanese Airways, went down within the Guangxi area, and flames and smoke may very well be seen rising from a hillside, preliminary Chinese language information studies mentioned, in line with footage and movies shared from the scene.
“The scenario with casualties stays unclear,” mentioned a web based report issued by Chinese language state tv.
Residents within the space informed reporters that the aircraft appeared to have shattered into particles, dampening hopes of discovering survivors.
Preliminary studies mentioned the aircraft crashed in Teng County in Guangxi whereas flying from Kunming, a metropolis in southwest China, to Guangzhou, a metropolis within the nation’s far south. The aircraft was carrying 132 folks, together with 123 passengers and 9 crew members, mentioned The Paper, a information web site in Shanghai. State media studies initially mentioned 133 passengers had been on board.
About 300 rescue employees had been racing to achieve the accident web site by early night, with one other 150 scheduled to reach later within the night time, the native forest fireplace service informed Chinese language tv information. The aircraft about seven years previous, had been flying steadily on this flight till it abruptly misplaced altitude at round 2:20 p.m., flight knowledge indicated.
The aircraft was not a Boeing 737 Max, a mannequin which has not resumed flying in China after a ban prompted by lethal crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019. However Chinese language airline firms have begun making new orders for the Max after Chinese language aviation authorities signaled late final yr that the mannequin might resume flying after introducing sure modifications and security measures.
The crash might develop into certainly one of China’s worst air disasters in a few years, after a succession of lethal accidents within the Nineties. Over the previous twenty years, the nation has established a comparatively protected flying report, because of a younger fleet of planes and stricter air controls.
Firefighters in Teng County had been first alerted to a attainable flight accident there within the afternoon, when villagers reported that that they had come throughout particles from a aircraft, the China Information Service reported.