China plane crash: ‘Grim’ search as rescue teams comb hillside
Firefighters and paramilitary police deployed to steeply-forested slopes of China’s first air crash in a decade.
Rescuers in China are scouring heavily forested slopes in southern China where a China Eastern Airlines crashed and exploded in flames, as the airline expressed “deep condolences” for those on board.
Some 132 people, including nine crew, were on flight MU5735 when it crashed in the mountains of southern Guangxi on a flight from Kunming to Guangzhou.
The Boeing 737-800 crash is the first involving a commercial aircraft in China since 2010.
Debris was strewn across mountain slopes with state media reporting that the burned remains of identity cards, purses, and wallets had been seen.
“The company expresses its deep condolences for the passengers and crew members who died in the plane crash,” China Eastern said in a statement, without providing more information.
The plane was flying at a cruising altitude when it suddenly plunged from the sky.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet (8,870 metres) to 7,850 feet (2,393 metres) in just over a minute.
After a brief upswing, it then plunged to 3,225 feet (982 metres), the tracker said.
