Pilot ‘deliberately crashed’ Boeing 737 as China accused of suppressing truth
Chinese authorities allegedly covered up that a suicidal pilot deliberately brought down a plane, resulting in the deaths of all 132 people onboard, US officials have claimed.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) seemed to confirm suspicions that China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed into mountains in Guangxi province due to the intentional actions of the pilot. Beijing officials are alleged to have suppressed information about the Boeing 737 crash in March 2022.
The plane’s engines were manually shut off and the autopilot was disengaged, causing the aircraft to nosedive toward the mountains. Flight recorder data showed two pilots struggling over controls as the plane continued to fall.
"It was found that while cruising at 29,000ft, the fuel switches on both engines moved from the run position to the cut-off position," the NTSB said. "Engine speeds decreased after the fuel switch movement."
The US agency demonstrated the opposing movements on the pilot’s controls, which indicated that one crew member tried to recover the aircraft while another forced it to continue descending.
The crew made no distress call during the incident, and no emergency transponder code was transmitted before the crash.
The aviation disaster became one of the more politically sensitive cases in China’s recent history. Beijing has since been accused of covering up the disaster despite increasing demands for greater transparency.
Claims of pilot error emerged shortly after the crash, with a US investigator telling the Wall Street Journal that "the plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit." The report that later emerged was removed from Chinese social media.
The pilots on the flight deck at the time of the crash, Captain Yang Hongda, 32, first officer Zhang Zhengping, 59, and trainee second officer Ni Gongtai, 27, were on board at the time, reports MailOnline.
Speculation focused on Zhang, one of the major airline’s senior pilots. He reportedly recently lost his rank of captain, and no official conclusion identifying responsibility has been published.
The crash is one of several incidents suspected to have been caused by pilot suicide. In 2015, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately flown an Airbus into the French Alps, resulting in the deaths of all 150 people onboard.
There has been speculation that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in 2015, was caused by intentional pilot error. All 239 people who were on board the flight are presumed dead.
Politics Editor
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