BEIJING – The pilots met Chinese standards for operating a commercial aircraft. No problems with the plane were found before takeoff. No dangerous cargo was loaded on board. Communication with the plane seemed normal until its deadly crash.
A preliminary report released by China’s aviation safety regulator on Wednesday failed to dispel much of the mystery as to why a China Eastern plane suddenly dived in clear weather last month and crashed into a muddy hill, killing all 132 people on board. The report basically catalogs what was previously known about the crash.
“The investigation found that the flight and cabin crew on board, as well as maintenance and clearance personnel, met the qualification requirements,” the report said. “Before deviating from cruising altitude, there was nothing unusual about wireless communications between crew and air traffic control or control commands.
The report also suggests that it may take some time to obtain more evidence from the plane’s two on-board recorders. “The two recorders on the plane were severely damaged in the crash,” the statement said, “and data recovery and analysis are ongoing.”
As a signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the Chinese regulator was required to submit a preliminary report on Wednesday, 30 days after the crash. But a summary statement issued by the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority of China, does not put forward any theories to answer why the plane, a Boeing 737-800, suddenly turned almost vertically as it traveled 29,000 feet and maintained that position. except for a short jump up about two-thirds of the way down to the ground.
Commercial jets are designed to be naturally stable from front to back in flight. They do not fly almost straight down at very high speeds unless extreme force is continuously applied to the horizontal stabilizers on both sides of the tail, aviation experts said in the days after the plane crash.
Mechanical failure or software failure can cause the horizontal stabilizers to malfunction or the pilot may intentionally force the aircraft to fly almost straight down. The report does not address these possibilities. But it mentions that key components of the tail were found in the crater left by the plane on a bamboo-covered hill.
Updated
April 20, 2022, 7:37 p.m. ET
The plane’s engines were also found there.
Earlier this month, Wu Shijie, a security official with China’s civil aviation administration, warned against a number of theories about the crash that have spread online in China. Some of these theories suggest the pilot’s suicide as the cause of the crash. Chinese aviation authorities have stepped up checks on the health and mental well-being of commercial aircraft pilots in recent days.
But Mr Wu said these measures for pilots should not be taken as a sign that the cause of the crash has been identified. “We still can’t figure out the cause and nature of the crash,” he told reporters, according to China’s official aviation news website.
China has tried to show openness and adhere to international standards for investigating air disasters. He sent both black boxes to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington for analysis.
The NTSB also sent a team to the crash site in southern China to help with the investigation. China has allowed the team to enter the country without going through the usual three weeks or more of isolation, allowing visiting investigators to follow the “balloon travel” requirements used during the Beijing Winter Olympics instead. These standards require daily PCR testing for Covid-19 and severely limit contact with Chinese citizens.
Keith Bradsher reports from Beijing and Chris Buckley reports from Sydney.
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