China Eastern Airlines grounds all 737-800 jets
A China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people onboad crashed in mountains in southern China.
The Boeing-737-800 departed Kunming for Guangzhou carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members.
It lost contact near the city of Wuzhou, according to China’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration.
“The Civil Aviation Administration activated the emergency response mechanism after a Boeing 737 crashed,” the CAAC said in a statement.
TV footage showed wreckage in flames on a mountainside.
Rescue crews were quickly at the scene.
All onboard are feared dead.
Rescuers said there were no signs of life at the crash site by nightfall.
President Xi Jinping has ordered an immediate investigation as China Eastern Airlines grounded its entire 737-800 fleet.
According to flight tracking data, the plane plummeted rapidly from its cruising altitude before crashing.
It dropped more than 20,000 feet in less than two minutes.
According to local media, the plane was seen plunging almost vertically.
It is the first commercial passenger plane crash in China for a decade.
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