On May 4th 2016 China's Civil Aviation Authority, Southwest Branch, held an emergency meeting stating, that although the outcome was different by sheer luck the reasons for the accident in Kangding were similiar to the crash in Yichun, see
Crash: Henan Airlines E190 at Yichun on Aug 24th 2010, impacted terrain short of runway and burst into flames.
Due to the high elevation it was procedural requirement, that this approach into Kangding (as well as subsequent departure from Kangding) had to be flown by two captains. The flight was therefore crewed with two captains and one first officer. However, the first captain in charge of the flight permitted the second captain to remain in the cabin, after the second captain reported fatigued and therefore did not enter the cockpit. The first officer had not been trained for high altitude airport operations and was not qualified for the operation.
While descending towards Kangding tower informed the crew that the clouds at Kangding were below minima, the aircraft entered a hold to wait for weather improvement. Cloud conditions changed rapidly, the aircraft therefore commenced an approach, however, at minimum descent height (MDH) the first officer, pilot monitoring, called that the runway was not in sight, the captain, pilot flying, however continued the descent assuming they would see the runway any time.
The aircraft touched down outside the airport perimeter as result and broke through 4 rows of approach lights before going around. A horizontal stabilizer was pierced, the hydraulic fluid of one system was completely lost and tyres damaged, however, the crew did not inform about the occurrence and did not seek assistance.
It was further stated in the meeting, that the crew permitted the cabin altitude to climb to above 14,000 feet MSL while in the hold waiting for weather improvement, this misconfiguration probably contributed to the accident sequence.
On May 6th 2016 China's Civil Aviation Authority suspended the Sichuan branch of China Eastern Airlines and opened disciplinary proceedings against captain and first officer.