From initial analyzes of the black box it appears that the Boeing 737-800 of the China Eastern airline, which crashed on March 21 with 123 passengers and 9 crew members, was intentionally crashed. For the choice of someone who was in the cockpit, it is not clear whether it was a pilot or an intruder. To reveal it exclusively is the US newspaper Wall Street Journal which cites American sources close to the investigation, invited to participate in the research because that is where the Boeing 737-800 was designed and produced.
The plane was traveling at a high altitude when it suddenly changed course and crashed into the mountains of Wuzhou in southern China, without any alarm or call for help. When they tried to contact the pilot and the first officer from the ground to understand why the plane was going down abnormally, no one answered.
Data from a recovered black box, the second being in conditions defined as “problematic”, in fact suggested that the inputs to the controls pushed the plane into the fatal dive. “The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” said a person close to the investigation of US officials at the Wsj.
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The information gathered so far has led the American team involved in the investigation to turn their attention to a pilot. But the possibility is not ruled out that someone else on the plane may have broken into the cockpit, and deliberately caused the tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 130 people.
According to the sources of the Wsj, the thesis would be supported by the fact that so far the Chinese authorities conducting the investigation have not reported any mechanical or control problems. In addition, Boeing Co., the company that manufactured the aircraft, did not produce any safety directives resulting from the accident.
In a statement issued to Wall Street Journal, China Eastern said there was no evidence that would determine whether or not there were any problems with the plane involved in the crash. The airline said it was not responsible for the investigation and referred to official announcements, including the summary of the Chinese government’s preliminary report released on April 20 that data recovery and analysis of the damaged black boxes were still in progress. course.
“Any unofficial speculation could interfere with the investigation into the accident and affect the real progress of the global aviation industry,” China Estern said. But a cockpit intrusion, according to the airline, is implausible. In a press conference on March 25, Chinese authorities said that no emergency code had been sent from the plane prior to the crash.
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The preliminary investigation report from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the country’s aviation safety regulator, confirms that there was nothing out of the ordinary in communications between crew and ground. Chinese authorities have not indicated to their American counterparts when they could publicly disclose their official findings of the investigation, the WSJ sources said. On the other hand, the Americans do not have all the information available, he specified.
The jet’s flight data recorder, found buried 1.5 meters underground by firefighters, and the cockpit voice recorder data will play an important role in helping authorities determine the cause of the accident.