Report: China Eastern Boeing 737 Crash Was Intentional

The China Eastern Boeing plane crashed in China in March of 2022, killing all 132 people on board. We didn't know much about what caused the plane to nosedive.

China Eastern Boeing 737 nosedive was intentional

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on an update regarding the crash of China Eastern flight MU5735, which was scheduled to operate from Kunming to Guangzhou. According to US officials familiar with the matter, data from the black box suggests that someone in the cockpit pushed the controls in a way that forced the plane into a nosedive.

The focus is on the pilots, though it is not yet known if it was one of them who made the inputs that caused the nosedive, or if there was someone else in the cockpit. I think those details will be figured out over time.

This news is both reassuring and terrifying.

• On the one hand, the Boeing 737-800 is one of the safest planes in the sky, and it’s good to know that there didn’t seem to be a mechanical issue that caused the plane to crash
• On the other hand, it’s terrifying to think that someone wouldn’t just take their own life, but also the lives of so many other people

Many airlines have eliminated the two-person cockpit rule

Even the least safe airline is still safer than most other forms of transportation, and China Eastern has a very good safety record.

The mental health of pilots is the thing that gives me pause when boarding a flight. I think that aviation is safe because we learn from every incident. Over the years there have been a lot of planes that have been deliberately crashed, yet I feel like this is one area where not many lessons have been learned.

• When planes are intentionally crashed by pilots, it’s almost always when there’s just one person in the cockpit (typically while the other pilot is stretching their legs or using the bathroom)
• Following the Germanwings crash in 2015, many airlines around the globe introduced a policy whereby there always need to be at least two people in the cockpit; that’s to say that if a pilot needs to use the restroom and there are no relief pilots, a flight attendant will enter the cockpit
• While many airlines introduced this policy at the time, so many airlines have quietly repealed it since then

Before the Germanwings crash, this rule existed in the United States. In many parts of the world, such a policy was introduced in 2015, but was eliminated within a couple of years.

We don't know what happened, so I'm not making these comments specific to this incident. I share that pilot mental health is something that gives me pause, and I find it disappointing that many airlines have abolished the two person cockpit rule. I'm not sure if that was a factor, but I'm sure it was.

Bottom line

All passengers on a China Eastern Boeing were killed in a crash. The data from the black box suggests that the crash may have been intentional.

What do you think about this update?

The image is courtesy of Shadman Samee.