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- A new report by Chinese authorities found nothing amiss before Flight MU5735’s deadly crash in 2022.
- The Boeing 737 was carrying 132 people before it nose-dived from high altitude into a hillside.
- Questions remain as to whether the crash may have been intentionally caused by someone on the plane.
Chinese authorities say they’ve yet to identify the cause of a Boeing 737 crash that killed 132 people two years ago, reporting that investigators found nothing abnormal occurring before the fatal incident.
The report, published Wednesday by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, covers the government probe into the crash of flight MU5735, which was operated by China Eastern Airlines.
Everything was working normally before the crash, including the aircraft, the facilities and equipment used, air traffic communication, and weather reports, the report said. Staff also kept to their rest hours, the report added.
“Before takeoff, no faults or abnormalities were found in the aircraft systems, airframe structure, engines, etc.,” the report said.
Its findings come as questions remain over whether the crash may have been caused by a pilot or someone else on the plane, whether intentionally or in error.
The civil aviation report said authorities would continue to investigate the case.
The plane is believed to have nose-dived right before the crash on March 21, 2022, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, plunging from high altitude in a “near-vertical descent,” The Wall Street Journal reported in May, citing a US assessment of flight-recorder data.
“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” an anonymous source familiar with the US assessment told the outlet.
Bloomberg reported shortly after the crash, citing flight tracker data, that the plane hit the ground while traveling near the speed of sound.
FlightRadar24, a website that provides tracking data to the public, wrote in a blog post that MU5735 had descended rapidly from 29,000 feet before reaching roughly 7,400 feet.
It then started climbing to about 8,600 feet before diving again, this time into the mountains of Teng County, the blog said.
Nine crew and 123 passengers were on board the afternoon flight from Kunming to Guangzhou, all of whom perished.
Local media coverage of the crash that year focused mainly on rescue efforts, calls by the authorities to probe the incident, and the victims, veering away from questions about the cause of the crash.
One young family was traveling on the flight so their infant daughter could receive medical treatment, and it was their first time flying, local media reported.
Chinese authorities denied that the crash was intentionally caused.
The CAAC has said that such rumors had “gravely misled the public” and “interfered with the investigation of the accident,” per Reuters.
But the investigation update from Wednesday, which mostly repeated points previously made by Chinese authorities, has fueled further speculation on social media that foul play was involved.
“Everything is normal, which means that it is either caused by someone on board or caused by a sudden uncontrollable external force!” wrote one commenter on state media coverage of the report on Weibo, China’s version of X.
“Isn’t the case closed if you just release the data in the black box? Is it so difficult to announce the truth?” wrote one blogger.
When asked to comment on the report, a Boeing spokesperson referred BI to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
China Eastern Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider.
