Probe into whether China Eastern crash was intentional

WASHINGTON • Investigators probing the crash of a China Eastern Airlines jet are looking into whether it was the result of intentional action on the flight deck, with no evidence found of a technical malfunction, two sources who were briefed on the matter said.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Tuesday that flight data from one of the Boeing 737-800's black boxes indicated that someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane, citing sources familiar with the preliminary assessment of United States officials.

Boeing, the maker of the jet, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declined to comment and referred questions to Chinese regulators.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which is leading the investigation, said the NTSB confirmed that it did not release information about the China Eastern crash to the media, the state-owned Global Times reported.

The CAAC said on April 11 in response to rumours on the Internet of a deliberate crash that the speculation had "gravely misled the public" and "interfered with the accident investigation work".

The passenger plane, en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed on March 21 in the mountains of the Guangxi region after a sudden plunge from cruising altitude, killing all 123 passengers and nine crew members aboard. It was mainland China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years.

The pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers and nearby planes during the rapid descent, the authorities have said. One source told Reuters that investigators were looking at whether the crash was a "voluntary" act.

Screenshots of the WSJ story appeared to be censored both on China's Weibo social media platform and the WeChat messaging app yesterday.

The hashtag topics "China Eastern" and "China Eastern black boxes" were banned on Weibo, which cited a breach of laws, and users were unable to share posts on the incident in group chats on WeChat.

A woman who lost her husband in the crash and who asked to be identified only by her surname, Wen, told Reuters yesterday that she had not seen the WSJ report but hoped the results of the investigation would be released soon.

Wen said she and other victims' family members had signed an agreement with China Eastern that included a point about compensation, but she declined to say how much had been offered.

Experts noted that the latest hypothesis left open whether the action stemmed from one pilot acting alone, or was the result of a struggle or intrusion, but sources stressed nothing has been confirmed.

The cockpit voice recorder was damaged during the crash and it is unclear whether investigators have been able to retrieve any information from it.

The 737-800 is a widely flown predecessor to Boeing's 737 Max but does not have the systems that have been linked to fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, which led to a lengthy grounding of the Max. Shares of Boeing closed up 6.5 per cent yesterday.

China Eastern grounded its entire fleet of 737-800 planes after the crash but resumed flights in the middle of last month, a decision widely seen at the time as ruling out any immediate new safety concerns over Boeing's most widely used model.

In a summary of an unpublished preliminary crash report last month, Chinese investigators did not point to any technical recommendations for the 737-800, which has been in service since 1997 with a strong safety record, according to experts.

REUTERS