China Reveals No Updates on Boeing Crash over 24 Hours Later

The plane crash in China’s southern Guangxi region continued as a headline news item in Chinese state media on Tuesday – but after 24 hours, China has revealed no significant details about the incident to the public.

China’s aviation regulator cautioned it might take years to complete the investigation and no one should expect much news until then.

China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 inexplicably plunged from 29,000 feet in a nearly vertical dive to crash in the Guangxi countryside on Monday, presumably killing all 132 people on board, although Chinese officials ordered an intensive search for survivors. The plane was en route from Kunming to the port city of Guangzhou, a flight that normally takes about two hours.

Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province, while Guangzhou is a major regional air traffic hub.

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-800 NG, a plane with an exceptionally good safety record. The plane in question has been operating since 2015.

Chinese media coverage is focused heavily on statements and symbolic actions by top Communist officials, not the circumstances surrounding the crash. China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday doted upon theatrical “rescue” operations conducted by top Communist Party leaders:

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and State Councilor Wang Yong led a team to the plane crash site in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region late Monday to guide the rescue work and investigation of the cause of the accident.

After continuous search and rescue, parts of wreckage and debris of the passenger plane, China Eastern’s Boeing 737, were found, but the missing people on board have not yet been found. Scattered and burnt ID documents, wallets and other items of people who were on the plane were spotted.

[…]

The rescue was made overnight. To facilitate rescue operations, a drone mobile base station has been set up, and the base station can guarantee a flight of more than 200 meters and remain in the air for 24 hours. 

The article went on to provide a detailed inventory of all the equipment the rescue team brought, down to the drones they used and the abundant supply of raincoats, plus a roll call of every local and national agency that sprang into action, but provided no details about the actual crash.

The Global Times set up a live blog for updates on the incident, which is also mostly concerned with name-dropping all the top officials racing to the scene and reprinting messages of condolence from assorted world leaders.

The New York Times (NYT) noted on Tuesday that air safety has long been a “point of pride for officials, and comfort for travelers.” Chinese social media is filled with posts counting the days since the last major aviation accident (4,226) and how long it has been since the last airplane fatality (over a decade).

“The United States government and Boeing have both offered to send investigators to help in analyzing the causes of the China Eastern crash. Chinese state media has noted the offer, without saying whether China will accept it,” the NYT reported.

According to various Chinese media reports, a great deal of debris from the crash has been isolated and marked off by search teams, but the “black box” flight recorders have not been located.

Authorities appear to have contained the enormous woodland fire started by the crash, big enough to be visible to satellites for several hours after impact, but rain and the steep slopes leading to the crash site, surrounded on three sides by mountains, are still reportedly hindering search efforts.

“The plane plunged into the mountain. The whole plane had disintegrated, it was in fragments scattered all around. I didn’t see anyone who lived through it,” a crash scene technician said.

 

Chinese state media has released few details about the passenger list, but some family members and associates have begun identifying individuals lost in the crash. 

One of the victims has been identified as Fang Fang, the chief financial officer of a Guangzhou media company with mining interests called Dinglong Culture. Two employees of Dinglong’s accounting firm were reportedly also on the plane, but the company denied rumors six other senior managers were traveling with Fang.

One Chinese media report said over 700 hotel rooms in the area have been requisitioned for family members of the victims as they converge on the crash area.

According to the NYT, Chinese government agencies are warning social media users and news organizations not to spread “rumors” or “conspiracy theories” about the crash, including speculation that China Eastern Airlines recently slashed its airplane maintenance budget.

Chinese censors have taken down at least one Internet post claiming maintenance cuts caused the crash.

The news blackout appears to have caused a bit of tension among Chinese state media apparatchiks, surprisingly including Hu Xijin, former editor of the Global Times and normally a tireless supporter of the regime in Beijing.

“Absolutely do not wait until the investigation has reached formal conclusions to release them to the public. It would be best to constantly issue updates at a faster rhythm,” Hu demanded on social media, responding to the Civil Aviation Administration of China cautioning the public that it could take several years to complete the investigation.

Despite these efforts at rumor control, online chatter around the world was gloomy enough to drive down stock prices for both Boeing and China Eastern on Tuesday. China Eastern grounded its entire 737-800 fleet after the crash, and on Tuesday the government of India announced it was placing all 737s under “enhanced surveillance.” 

The crash comes as Boeing was attempting to relaunch its 737 MAX line in China, three years after a pair of fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia grounded those planes worldwide. Boeing has over 140 737 MAX planes standing by for delivery to Chinese customers, pending final approval from regulators.