A fuel cut-off was responsible for the 2022 crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 that killed all 132 people on board, according to an investigative report cited by the BBC.
The aircraft went down in March 2022 near Wuzhou, in China's Guangxi region, after entering a near-vertical dive from cruising altitude. The crash was one of the deadliest aviation disasters in China's modern history.
What investigators found
The report indicates that the fuel supply to the engines was deliberately cut off, causing the aircraft to lose power and crash into a hillside. The finding points to intentional action rather than a mechanical failure or adverse weather as the cause of the disaster.
Chinese authorities had previously been tight-lipped about the investigation's progress, and the release of a definitive cause represents a significant development in one of the most closely watched aviation inquiries in recent years.
The crash and its aftermath
Flight MU5735 departed Kunming bound for Guangzhou on March 21, 2022, when it suddenly plummeted from an altitude of approximately 29,000 feet. The aircraft struck a mountainside at high speed, leaving a deep crater and scattering wreckage across a wide area.
Rescue and recovery operations continued for weeks after the crash. Investigators recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which are believed to have informed the conclusions in the report.
Boeing, whose 737-800 model was involved in the disaster, had faced intense scrutiny in the years prior to the crash due to safety issues with a different variant, the 737 MAX. The 737-800 involved in the China Eastern crash is a separate and older model with a distinct safety record.
Broader implications
If confirmed officially, a finding of deliberate fuel cut-off would raise serious questions about cockpit security protocols and crew screening procedures within Chinese commercial aviation. Aviation safety experts have noted that such a conclusion would be among the most serious findings an air crash investigation can produce.
China's Civil Aviation Administration has not yet issued a full public statement responding to the report's conclusions, according to the BBC's coverage. Chinese authorities have historically conducted aviation investigations with limited external involvement, and the full official report has not yet been publicly released in its entirety.
The disaster prompted China Eastern to temporarily ground its fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft in the immediate aftermath, though flights resumed after initial inspections found no safety issues with the remaining planes.
