The Mysterious Plane Crash of China Eastern Airlines

On March 21, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed while flying from Kunming to Guangzhou. China's top leaders, including Chairman Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, both expressed their shock. Industry insiders have given various analyses, but an article that was first to mention the possibility of an intentional crash was deleted. What exactly happened? Industry insiders have observed four bizarre occurrences before the crash, including a sharp drop of more than 20,000 feet while cruising and a brief pull-up during the crash. It has triggered different speculations from professionals at home and abroad. Was it a malfunction or an intentional crash by the pilot? Let's review seven points pertaining to this crash. Point 1. The CCP Leader's Unusual Reactions On the same day of the crash on March 21, Chairman Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang immediately requested a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident. Vice Premier Liu He rushed to the scene that night. French news agency AFP reported that the top echelon of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, made an unusual and quick response this time. Rumors have it that there were seven leaders on board. According to China expert Chen Pocong, the crash may have involved some very important people from a certain province, which suggests a power struggle inside the CCP. The CCP's 20th National Congress will be held in the fall. Whether Xi can be re-elected as the party leader will be decided then. Because the crash is so bizarre, the possibility of eliminating political enemies through the and other possibilities also exist such as defection, coup d'etat, and infighting. China Eastern Airlines is headquartered in Shanghai, and one of its shareholders is the Shanghai Alliance Investment, controlled by the first son of former party leader Zhang Zemin, who is Xi Jinping's top rival in the party. Between the 2006 corruption case in the Air China Group and 2013, 12 senior executives of China Eastern Airlines have fallen from grace. In 2021, another sex bribery scandal blew up in the company. Analysis suggests that it's worth following up on whether the crash of Eastern Airlines is related to the power struggle within the CCP officialdom. Point 2. There are four strange things about the crash. Based on the various information available online, the plane crash had four odd things about it. The first is the plane smashed into pieces, meaning it was likely to have no survivors. A mining company surveillance camera caught the plane dropping from the sky. When playing the footage in slow motion, it shows that the plane's wings were still intact in the air. It suggests the crushing disintegration occurred after it crashed into the mountain. Second, the crew didn't send an emergency code to the ground. It didn't send out an emergency code, nor answered ground calls, which is very odd. Third, the plane dived downward at a near-vertical angle, which is quite rare in the history of aviation. Moreover, the altitude of the plane went from about 29,000 feet, which is about 8,869 meters, to 3,225 feet, or 983 meters, in less than two minutes. Such a speed is astonishing. Fourth, the plane made a mysterious climb during its rapid descent. At 2.20 pm, the plane began to drop in altitude and swoop downward from 29,100 feet. At 2.21 pm, when the plane had dropped to 7,425 feet, it began to climb upward for about 20 seconds and brought the plane back to 8,600 feet, and then fell a second time until it crashed. How to explain this unusual dive and climb? Why did the plane go out of control? Did the crew try to rescue it? These are all mysteries waiting to be solved. Point three, no remains of victims were found at the crash site. According to reports from Mainland China, some villagers nearby the crash site said they heard a huge explosion. They arrived at the scene at the first opportunity and saw the plane's wings in debris. The crash started a mountain fire of about 10 acres. The local villagers said that there was a passenger plane that crashed nearby. No one was found. The plane's shell fell into pieces after the explosion. The explosion should have happened after hitting the mountain. Then the plane fell into pieces. The CCP-controlled media Phoenix TV reported that a villager who assisted in disaster relief at the scene revealed that the plane had completely disintegrated after the crash and no remains were found. This is also relatively rare in plane crashes. Point four, all 132 people died in the crash. The victims' families have been under constant surveillance by the authorities. According to the South China Morning Post, after the tragedy, the Chinese Communist authorities assigned a special task force of at least three people to each of the families of the victims. China Eastern Airlines alone deployed more than 300 employees. In addition to providing assistance to families, another important task of these special task forces is to closely monitor their movements to ensure that they don't stage protests or complain about the authorities' handling of the situation or the compensation for their loss. An article published by the mainland media about an interview with the families of the victims was quickly accused by some netizens of violating journalistic ethics. The families interviewed were also attacked online for not being sad enough and for acting to steal the limelight. In recent years, the CCP has often manipulated online forces to create public opinions for its own purposes. On March 24, the mainland website Today's Headline published several demands from the families of the victims, including allowing them to pay their respects at the crash site, setting up a place where they can do so on a permanent basis, and organizing an alliance or group of families for mutual support. A bereaved family complained, At the strong request of families, the authorities finally agreed that a group of 15 people could go to the area overlooking the valley where the plane crashed and pay their respects for half an hour. The Central News Agency reported that the families were interviewed by the official media under the surveillance of the authorities, and the media reports were asked not to overemphasize the grief and despair. After the incident, articles analyzing the cause of the accident from a professional point of view were removed by the authorities. For example, Cai Jing magazine interviewed one civil aviation professional. He said that accidents in this situation generally have three causes. One, the pilot intended to commit suicide. Two, it was hit by a foreign object such as a missile. And three, it was a problem with the design or maintenance of the plane. This article was subsequently deleted. Another report by Chinese media, A Bit of Financial News, said that China Eastern Airlines had suppressed costs through various means, including strict control of maintenance costs. This article was also removed by authorities. The Communist Party has begun to strictly control related content on media reports and the breaking of related news on social media platforms. According to the official announcement, a total of more than 279,000 messages were purged. Media members have posted articles complaining that the CCP's censorship of this crash is stricter than previous breaking events. At an official press conference when Reuters reporters asked about the maintenance records of the crashed China Eastern Airlines plane, the length of the flight and the weather at the time of the accident, the attitude of the chairman of the board of directors of Eastern Airlines was to dodge the questions. It has only added to the public's suspicions. Point six, two black boxes were recovered, yet no further information is available. The cockpit voice recorder was found on March 23rd, and on March 27th, Chinese authorities announced that a second black box, the flight data recorder, had been retrieved from the hillside east of the impact point at the crash site. Both black boxes stopped recording when the power was cut. The black boxes are designed so that they can withstand fire and powerful shocks. They are equipped with radio beacons that can be activated underwater, but not on land. Flight data recorders used to use magnetic tapes, but now they are digital, which allows them to hold more information. Chinese officials said the exterior of the cockpit voice recorder had been damaged, but didn't say whether the recording was intact. The chief of the Guangxi Fire and Rescue Department said the flight data recorder found on the 27th was badly damaged, but the data storage unit was in relatively good shape. At present, the two black boxes have been sent to the Beijing Professional Laboratory for inspection, decoding, and analysis. The aircraft recorders can tell investigators what the pilots were doing before the crash, whether they were aware that something was wrong, and how the engines and other equipment were operating. In the Eastern Airlines incident, air traffic controllers heard nothing from the pilots before the plane crashed, making the data provided by the black boxes particularly important. Point 7. NTSB will participate in the investigation, but it has to address Beijing's COVID isolation requirements first. The investigation will be led by a Chinese team as the crash occurred in China. Other involved agencies include the plane's country of origin, representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, as well as technical advisors from Boeing and CFM. CFM is a joint venture of the U.S. and France. It made the plane's engines. The NTSB said it was in talks with the Chinese side to address COVID-19 isolation requirements. Finding the cause of the plane's crash relies on more than just the two black boxes. Investigators will also look at the plane's maintenance history, pilot training and records, and weather data. They will examine the debris for clues. Even the size of the debris field is important. Finding wreckage far from the plane's impact point could indicate that the plane disintegrated before it hit the ground, possibly due to a mechanical or structural failure, an airborne collision or an explosion. Investigators said on March 26th that no traces of explosives had been found so far. The Wall Street Journal reported that an industry expert said investigators could still find important clues even without the black box. He said investigators will comb through the backgrounds of the passengers and crew to see if any of them may have had a motive for the crash. In addition, they will study whether the plane crashed because it lost power or whether the plane's engines had been powering it till it crashed. On March 25th, an investigator said that search and rescue personnel found the cockpit voice recorder but it was severely damaged in the plane's near vertical descent impact. A professional lab has been carrying out repair and data download work since receiving the recorder. It's not clear when the download can be completed and data analysis work can finish. However, he said, according to international rules, a preliminary report will be made within 30 days of the crash.