China Eastern resumes Boeing 737-800 flights

BEIJING • China Eastern Airlines resumed flying Boeing 737-800 aircraft yesterday, flight tracking data showed, just weeks after it grounded 223 planes over a crash that killed 132 people.

Flight MU5843, operating the 800 variant of the 737, departed the south-western city of Kunming at 9.58am local time and landed in Chengdu at 11.03am, according to Flightradar.com.

The three-year-old jet later returned to Kunming from Chengdu, with further flights scheduled for tomorrow.

China Eastern said it had conducted systematic tests, structural check-ups and verified airworthiness data for each of the aircraft, and that test flights would be carried out on all planes before they resumed commercial services.

Flight MU5735 - a 737-800 - was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it nosedived into a mountainside, disintegrating on impact. The jet dropped about 6,000m in just over a minute. The velocity of the impact left twisted metal and passengers' belongings scattered across a vast swathe of forest.

The cause of the disaster, China's deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years, is not yet known. The accident caused the airline to ground all of its 737-800s for safety checks as the authorities vowed an extensive two-week inspection of China's vast passenger fleet.

The aviation authorities have retrieved both black boxes from the downed jet, which are currently being analysed at an American lab with the help of investigators from the United States government.

A preliminary investigation report would be completed within 30 days of the crash, the government previously said.

Boeing 737-800 planes with registration numbers close to the one that crashed on March 21 are still undergoing maintenance checks and evaluation, the company told Reuters.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE