2 years on, still no answer to why a China Eastern Boeing 737 crashed, killing all 132 people aboard
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, search and rescue workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 24, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a search and rescue worker holds the second orange-colored “black box” recorder which recovered at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 27, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, search and rescue workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 24, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, search and rescue workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 24, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a search and rescue worker holds the second orange-colored “black box” recorder which recovered at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 27, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a search and rescue worker holds the second orange-colored “black box” recorder which recovered at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 27, 2022. Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday, March 20, 2024 that they have not yet determined the cause. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP, File)
BEIJING (AP) — Two years after a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet crashed on a domestic flight in China, killing all 132 people on board, accident investigators indicated Wednesday that they have not yet determined the cause.
An update issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the eve of the second anniversary of the crash shed little new light on it. It largely reiterated earlier findings that everything appeared to have been normal with the plane and its crew, and that weather conditions were fine.
“No faults or abnormalities in aircraft systems, airframe structures, engines, etc., were found before take off,” the report said. “The qualifications of the relevant operation and support personnel ... were in line with requirements and the facilities and equipment were in normal working order.”
The China Eastern flight was flying from the city of Kunming to the city of Guangzhou when it went into a nosedive at 8,800 meters (29,000 feet) and slammed into a mountainside. The crew reported no problems before losing contact with air traffic control.
The civil aviation administration said a technical team will continue to investigate the cause of the crash.