China Eastern aircraft reported down

[Coolboy]

Any updates on type of aircraft involved, time of accident, more precise location and number of casualties?

Update: On the PPR (Professional Pilot Rumours Network), they are reporting it is a 737-800, went down near Wuzhou ( in Guangxi, near where the Xi Jiang (West River) flows to the Guangdong border to join the Pearl River), but not confirmed yet:

https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/...-incident.html

Before we speculate on the causes, I should say in fairness to Mainland airlines, in terms of air safety, they actually have had a pretty good record for the past 15 years or so, with relatively few incidents despite the large growing volume of air traffic. This was in contrast to the 90's, when air safety was horrid on the Mainland with frequent crashes (something which they shared with their arch-rival across the Taiwan Straits, Taiwanese airlines also had a terrible safety record). But to the credit of the mainland (give them credit where it is due), they recognized the problem and adopted US FAA procedures in flight management, aircraft maintenance and pilot training, leading to a much improved air safety record.

Of course, the pandemic and long periods of non-flying by pilots have raised questions about whether their flying skills have gone rusty.

[emx]

https://view.inews.qq.com/a/TWF20220...&uid=798476337

[Coolboy]

https://twitter.com/TheLegateIN/stat...-incident.html

[Coolboy]

https://twitter.com/ChinaAvReview/st...-incident.html

[Coolboy]

Fire on the hillside caused by the crash:

https://twitter.com/ChinaAvReview/st...Cj_f6G4eUpAAAA

[Coolboy]

Crash site:

https://twitter.com/ChinaAvReview/st...Ct_ffX4eUpAAAA

[Coolboy]

Original Post Deleted

Flighttrader shows the flight was cruising fine and steadily gaining attitude as the flight progress...then there was an almost vertical plunge to the ground from almost 30,000 feet.

[flameproof]

I agree, China has quite a good safety record. Plane details:

https://www.planespotters.net/airfra...irlines/ejn28p

[shri]

Ugh .. 737 again?!?

[Coolboy]

Ugh .. 737 again?!?

Not exactly the same model. The Lion Air and Ethiopia crashes involved the 737-MAX. So far, if the information provided is correct, this was a 737-800, the NG (Next Generation) range of models prior to the 737-MAX. The NG models like the 737-800 do not have MCAS.

You can tell the difference between the MAX and prior 737 models by looking at its wing-tip. The MAX has a "split wingtip device" with one tip going down and another going up like a traditional winglet. This was designed to further cut-down on wingtip vortex which causes drag:



The 737-800 NG model by contrast just have the more traditional upturned winglet: