Shocked” Xi Orders Probe Into China Plane Crash: 10 Points
New Delhi: China Plane Crash: A China Eastern passenger jet has crashed in southwest China and caused a mountain fire with an unknown number of casualties, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.
The jet was a 6-year-old Boeing 737-800NG aircraft and was carrying 132 people. It had 123 passengers and nine crew on board. The People’s Daily quoted a provincial firefighting department official as saying there was no sign of life among the scattered debris.
The plane crashed in the rural countryside near Wuzhou city, Guangxi region and “caused a mountain fire“, Chinese state media CCTV said. One villager told a local news site that the plane involved in the crash had “completely fallen apart” and he had seen nearby forest areas destroyed by a fire caused when the plane crashed onto the mountainside.
The aircraft involved wasn’t a new-generation Boeing Max jet, the model involved in previous fatal crashes. The re-engined Max narrow-body was grounded in March 2019 in the wake of fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. That particular make of plane still hasn’t returned to commercial service in China.
