China Eastern 737-800 MU5735 accident March 2022
 

Various reports on social media of an incident involving China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 operating flight MU5735. Some reports - unconfirmed by news sources as I type - state that the flight has supposedly crashed near Wuzhou.

Has crashed into the mountains

Final FlightRadar position has a decent rate of 31,000 fpm

METAR Wuzhou Xijiang Airport (WUZ)

From FL290 to ground in 2 mins. The aircraft was delivered to the operator new in 2015.

Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 41474
Line Number 5453
Aircraft Type; Boeing 737-89P(WL)

First Flight 5 Jun 2015
Age 6.8 Years
Production Site Renton (RNT)


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a9e0d3653c.jpg

FR24 shows FL290 to A090 in a 3 minutes. Is FR24 data reliable in this aspect?

A few things point to losing 20k in 3 minutes.

Unfortunately it isn't looking like a great outcome for all those onboard.
For Boeing, it isn't a MAX.

Apparent video of Final moments:


Nose straight down. Just awful

I am a bit skeptical about that video.
However, if this is verified as true, then this is clearly suicide. Either pilot or cockpit breached.

It is the grainiest footage in the world, but it doesn't appear to have a vertical stabiliser to me.

That looks too slow to be an aircraft in a nose dive, unless the CCTV playback was slowed down.

Personally I look because I fly the same type and want to know what happened and if there's anything I can learn to avoid the same happening to me.
Purely from my selfish pov I'd rather see some evidence of what happened than nothing or silence. This allows me to draw inferences or conclusions. If there was a news blackout every time there was an accident or incident it wouldn't advance flight safety.
RIP to those onboard.

Looks like no wings or something similar....quite difficult to glide, maybe not a suicidal act.

If the Flightradar data is close to correct the final resting place is very close to Wuzhou (ZGWZ) - less than 5km. Wuzhou sees regular 737 flights.

It might be helpful for the discussion here (as amateur speculations are not deleted) for professionals here to 1) state their credentials and 2) list causative factors that can be ruled out, given the extremely minimal information available.

That might help the readers here with a baseline against which these drive-by amateur comments can be measured.

There’s a video going around showing what looks like part of the lower wing skin fairly intact. Would be surprised if a section that size survived a high speed impact. Maybe indicates partial break up pre-impact?

Is this part of the rudder (a/c right)? When comparing the paint scheme it seems like it is the only place that it could come from. Is so it has been found away from the fire
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f4cef162f.jpeg

Surely nothing can be ruled in or out at this point?.

The Boxes (if intact) should tell a fair portion of the tale.

The speculation (for those who seem to be offended by it) is to do with a general interest , a fear that something similar should befall any of us and the hope the root cause , if it can be found, might stop it happening again.. it happens on every single similar thread here - if it does bother you it mightn’t be the site for you.

RIP to all.

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If it is not in China it doesn't count ? ...

Flash airline flight 604, malfunction lead to autopilot disconnected and pilot not controling their aircraft, that it is low altitude doesn't change anything, high altitude make it even more easier to loose control.

Adam air flight 574 ... High altitude lost of control after autopilot disconnectedhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Airlines_Flight_604

The descent rate varied during the fatal dive, with a maximum recorded value of 53,760 feet per minute,
From memory, I believe that the descent profile of the Adam air is quit similar of the one seems to be seen here.

I also remember a pilot suicide, with the pilot banking the plane high altitude and also same very fast descent from high FL to ground in few minutes, forgot which plane thought. Not saying it what happened there, but descent profile would also fit.

West Air Sweden CRJ200 instrument failure at FL330 in darkness, causing spatial disorientation, is at first glance quite similar to this.