What did the black box of the China Eastern jet reveal?
3 min read
Jiang Huaipeng/Xinhua via AP
Someone at the controls of a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed in March, killing 132 people. It appeared to have purposefully flown into the mountainside below.
The Boeing 737-800 airliner crashed due to deliberate input from the cockpit, according to an investigation of the black box flight recorders discovered among the wreckage by US officials.
“The plane performed what it was directed to do by someone in the pilot,” an unnamed source stated.
The Eastern airliner was traveling at a consistent altitude. The speed dropped more than 20,000 feet in less than a minute and crashed near Wuzhou, Guangxi province.
The crash inquiry has been directed by Chinese authorities. But US officials are participating because the jet was built in the United States.
What did the China Eastern jet’s black box reveal?
Controls in the cockpit sent the jet into a catastrophic plunge, according to data from a black box recovered near the crash scene near Wuzhou in the southern region of Guangxi.
Chinese authorities have yet to blame the disaster on mechanical or flight control faults. It killed everyone on board on March 21.
The focus of the investigation has switched to the pilot’s conduct as a result of the revelation. But it’s also plausible that someone else aboard the plane stormed into the cockpit and caused the catastrophe.
“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit.”
— Ramy Inocencio 英若明 (@RamyInocencio) May 17, 2022
Recalling that China Eastern Boeing 737-800 crash on March 21 that killed all 132 people.
A prelim assessment by U.S. officials points to intentional act.
Via @WSJ https://t.co/gqmABOzoeD
In reaction to the tragedy, air safety regulators and Boeing officials have not issued any service bulletins or directions. It would be published if authorities felt it was necessary to inform airlines about technical concerns. On the other hand, US investigators do not have access to all of the data that their Chinese counterparts do.
Prior to the April disaster, a preliminary readout of the China Eastern plane’s flight data recorder revealed deliberate pilot inputs. China Eastern Airlines officials claimed they had found no evidence that the plane was having any problems previous to the incident.
Aviation Twitter: Black boxes recovered after the crash of China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 indicate that someone intentionally crashed the plane https://t.co/nNCWpvQC61
— Tapiwa Munjoma (@TapiwaMunjoma) May 17, 2022
The pilots’ health and financial status, on the other hand, were both excellent.
“Any unofficial assumption may interfere with the accident inquiry and undermine the true advancement of the global air transportation business,” China Eastern added.
The airline further disputed a possible cockpit infiltration. It cites information from a March 25 press conference in which Chinese officials said that no emergency notification had been provided in advance.
China’s Vice Premier Liu He has been tasked with overseeing the investigation by China’s Civil Aviation Administration.
Ankita Khanrah
Ankita Khanrah is a second-year student of the Master of Communication and Journalism (Integrated) programme at the School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed University, Bhubaneswar.
