An aircraft of China Eastern Airlines has crashed in the southwest of the country, according to state media. The Chinese president is calling for “the causes of the accident to be determined as soon as possible”.
For the moment, the Chinese media do not give any assessment of the accident. A Boeing-737 with 132 people on board crashed Monday in southern China, an accident that could be the deadliest since 1994 in this country where air safety has greatly improved.
The Boeing-737, crashed near the city of Wuzhou, in the Guangxi region, and “caused a fire” in the mountains, CCTV reported, adding that rescue teams have been sent to the scene.
According to local media, China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 took off shortly after 1 p.m. local time (6 a.m. Paris time) from the southwestern metropolis of Kunming. Its destination was Guangzhou, some 1,300 km away.
The aircraft “lost contact over the city of Wuzhou” in the mountainous region of Guangxi, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
“It is confirmed that this flight crashed,” it added in a brief statement, saying it had dispatched “a task force” to the scene. The plane was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, according to the CAAC.
No comment was immediately available from China Eastern. The last major air accident in China was in August 2010. It killed 42 people.
