Rescue efforts continue Tuesday in Tengxian County in the southern province of Guangxi, where a Boeing 737-800 of China Eastern airline crashed on Monday with 132 people on board, without any survivors being found or black boxes yet reported.
The aircraft traveled between the cities of Kunming (southwest) and Guangzhou (southeast) and took off at 13.15 local time (05.15 GMT) on Monday before rushing ashore in Guangxi at 14.38 local time (06.38 GMT).
At the moment no official source has clarified whether foreigners were traveling on board.
The incident caused a forest fire in the area, difficult for rescue teams to access due to its rugged terrain and remote location.
The People's Liberation Army (Chinese Army) mobilized 80 soldiers from the region early Tuesday to assist in the rescue efforts, which were added to more than 700 firefighters from the local province and another 500 sent by the neighbouring province, Canton.
The fire was put out on Monday afternoon and the rescue teams were able to approach the crash site, where they continued their work during the night: “There are pieces of the aircraft wing, some between two and three meters. There is also rubble and debris, some of which are probably pieces of clothing,” described a worker quoted by the Xinhua agency.
The Guangxi Health Commission also sent 36 ambulances and 80 medical workers to the area to assist potential survivors, and Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He has traveled to the area to lead the operations.
“In a tailspin”
“The plane fell into a tailspin and seemed to be in one piece during the fall. A few seconds later, it crashed,” said a resident of the area quoted by Xinhua.
According to data from the flight tracking portal FlightRadar24, the aircraft was flying at 14.19 local time (06.19 GMT) at an altitude of 29,100 feet (8,870 meters) when, about 55 kilometers west of the town of Wuzhou, it began to descend.
The last point of contact of the flight, according to the said portal, was about 25 kilometers southwest of Wuzhou, at an altitude of 3,225 feet (989 meters), at 14.22 local time (06.22 GMT), which would mean that in just three minutes the aircraft descended nearly 8,000 meters.
Other witnesses referred to the sound of the explosion: “I heard a loud noise and a fire started quickly in my tree plantation,” explained one local.
Falls in the stock market
The plane crash, the first in China since 2010, when 44 people died in a crash in Yichun (northeast), has led to declines in the stock market value of the airline operating the flight, China Eastern Airlines.
The company lost 5.98% today at 10.30 local time (2.30 GMT) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and 4.36% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where it is also listed.
China Eastern ordered hours after the accident that all 737-800 aircraft, the model of the crashed aircraft, remain on the ground until more information is available about what happened, according to the local press.
Shortly after the event, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for an investigation to clarify both the causes of the accident “as soon as possible” and other possible safety issues in the civil aviation sector.
(With information from EFE)
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