In a startling revelation, U.S. officials have claimed that Chinese authorities were aware within weeks that a pilot intentionally crashed a passenger jet, resulting in the tragic loss of all 132 people on board. This assertion comes as new information from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sheds light on the events surrounding the crash.
The NTSB’s latest report supports longstanding suspicions that China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was deliberately brought down in March 2022. The Boeing 737, flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed into the mountains of Guangxi province, with allegations surfacing that Beijing may have withheld critical details from the public.
According to the U.S. investigation, the aircraft was on autopilot at cruising altitude when both engines were deliberately shut off. The autopilot was subsequently disengaged, sending the plane into a steep nosedive, raising questions about the actions taken on board.
Data retrieved from the flight’s black boxes revealed a harrowing scene in the cockpit, where a struggle ensued as two pilots vied for control, desperately trying to regain command of the jet as it plummeted toward the earth.
The NTSB reported that while the plane was at 29,000 feet, the fuel switches for both engines were moved from the run to the cut-off position, causing the engines to lose power. This critical action was noted in the report, highlighting the deliberate nature of the incident.
Further analysis from the NTSB released graphs illustrating opposing movements on the pilots’ control yokes. This indicated a struggle, with one crew member attempting to recover the aircraft, while another persistently forced it into a dive, further compounding the tragic event.
Video captured from the ground showed the plane plunging almost vertically from the sky.
No distress call was made by the crew, and no emergency transponder code was transmitted before the impact.
The Chinese passenger jet, which smashed into a mountain in 2022 killing all 132 people on board, was deliberately crashed, investigators believe
The plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 21, 2022
Workers search through debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County, March 24, 2022
The disaster has become one of the most politically sensitive aviation cases in modern Chinese history, with Beijing being accused of suppressing information amid mounting international pressure for transparency.
Last year, China’s Civil Aviation Administration warned that any further ‘disclosure [about the crash] may, if released, endanger national security and social stability’.
The NTSB has been asked to decode the aircraft’s black boxes after the crash and sent its findings to Chinese authorities just two weeks after the recorders were recovered in 2022.
Extracts were only released publicly this week after a Chinese citizen submitted a freedom of information request in the United States.
The agency said the flight data recorder stopped after around 90 seconds because of a power failure, although the battery-powered cockpit voice recorder continued operating.
The NTSB said it no longer holds a copy of the audio after transmitting it to Beijing.
Chinese investigators have repeatedly stated in previous updates that the aircraft’s systems appeared to be functioning normally before the crash.
Just two months after the disaster, however, a US investigator told The Wall Street Journal that ‘the plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit’.
References to the report were later scrubbed from Chinese social media.
Three pilots were on the flight deck at the time of the crash – Captain Yang Hongda, 32, first officer Zhang Zhengping, 59, and trainee second officer Ni Gongtao, 27.
Speculation in China has focused heavily on Zhang, one of the airline’s senior pilots, who had reportedly recently lost his captain’s rank.
No official conclusion identifying responsibility has ever been published.
Rescue workers speculated that the fire resulting from the crash had ‘totally incinerated’ the passengers and their belongings, before causing damage to the surrounding forest
Rescuers are pictured searching for the black boxes at a plane crash site in Tengxian County, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 22, 2022
The crash has renewed scrutiny of suspected pilot murder-suicides in commercial aviation, a phenomenon linked to several of the world’s deadliest air disasters in recent years.
The most infamous case remains the 2015 Germanwings tragedy, when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew an Airbus into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.
Deliberate pilot action has also long been considered a leading theory behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished in 2014 with 239 people aboard after veering dramatically off course with no radio communication.
More recently, investigators examining the crash of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, which killed 241 people after take-off for London last year, are facing intense scrutiny amid disputes over whether cockpit actions played a role.
In March, the International Air Transport Association criticised countries that fail to release crash findings promptly.
Its director-general Willie Walsh said: ‘Anything less than 100 per cent compliance short-changes everyone on opportunities to improve.’
