The China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in March killing the 132 people on board appears to have been deliberately driven[/B] into the mountain, the Wall Street Journal revealed yesterday, publishing an assessment by experts who studied the black box. The analysis suggests that someone in the cockpit of the Boeing 737-800 deliberately made the fatal dive.
The aircraft, on a domestic flight to China, maintained a steady altitude until it dropped, precipitously, 20,000 feet before finally crashing. The path the aircraft took, the fact that it did not broadcast a call for help and that the signal was never lost raised suspicions among investigators who saw similarities to the 2015 Germanwings Barcelona-Dusseldorf flight crash.
In that case, co-pilot Andreas Lubic locked the pilot out of the cockpit at some point and deliberately crashed the aircraft into the French Alps, killing 150 people. Lubitsch, 28, had been diagnosed with suicidal tendencies by a psychiatrist, who declared him "unfit for work", but he had concealed the diagnosis from the German low-cost airline.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the crew met safety requirements before takeoff, the aircraft was not carrying hazardous materials and did not appear to have encountered bad weather, and the airline noted that the captain and co-pilot were not experiencing any health problems. But the truth is that as no problems were found with the aircraft and its systems, a thorough investigation of the pilots is underway.
Flight data shows that someone in the cockpit intentionally ditched the aircraft, which was traveling at high altitude, when it suddenly made a near-vertical descent, plummeting vertically into a mountain at tremendous speed. Data from the black box recovered after the crash suggests that the precipitous fall was caused by a command given. "The plane did what it was instructed to do by someone in the cockpit," said a person familiar with the U.S. officials' preliminary assessment, which includes analysis of information extracted from the plane's damaged flight data recorder."
It has been reported that Chinese authorities have so far not identified any mechanical or flight control problems on the plane that crashed on March 21 in southern China. This particular model of aircraft is considered one of Boeing's safest for commercial flights.
The information gathered from the investigation led U.S. officials involved in it to turn their attention to the actions of one pilot. There is also the possibility that someone else on the plane had entered the cockpit and deliberately caused the crash. Neither Boeing nor air safety regulators have issued safety bulletins or instructions in response to the crash. Such messages would exist if authorities believed that airlines and pilots should have been notified of problems encountered by the flight crew or details that required repairs to the aircraft.
A China Eastern executive in a statement to the Wall Street Journal said that no evidence has emerged to suggest that there were problems with the aircraft involved in the crash. The airline said the pilots' health and family situation were good, adding that their financial situation was also good.
Asked about a possible cockpit intrusion, the Chinese airline spokesman said such a scenario was not likely as no emergency code had been sent from the plane before the crash. After the crash, China Eastern grounded its entire fleet of identical Boeing models for about a month. Two crashes of Boeing 737-Max, a later model of the 737-800, were recorded in 2018 and 2019, but in those cases design problems were found. Max aircraft did not return to commercial flights in China for more than three years after those two crashes in other countries linked to a faulty flight control system.
The Chinese authorities' preliminary report said communications between the crew and air traffic controllers showed nothing abnormal before the plane crashed. Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots after seeing it go down, but received no response.
The China Eastern aircraft broke up when it hit a mountain, scattering debris on wooded terrain. Search and rescue teams found no survivors. Among the passengers were a 17-year-old boy on his first flight, six people travelling together for a funeral and a former accountant who had recently moved to start a new job at e-commerce company Alibaba and marry his sweetheart.
Source: in.gr
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