Search parties secure the remains of the crashed flight MU 5735 in the mountainous and difficult terrain.
(Photo: action press)
Frankfurt A large piece of wreckage from the China Eastern Boeing 737 that crashed in China on Monday raises new questions about the cause of the accident. According to the Chinese aviation authority CAAC, search parties have found an aircraft part about 1.3 by 0.1 meters in size. The irritating thing: It is about ten kilometers from the crash site.
So far, the remains of the wreck are in an area with a radius of only 30 meters. The approximately seven-year-old Boeing 737 NG fell almost vertically nose-forward on Monday at high speed and crashed there. 132 people died.
The find that has now become known fuels speculation that the jet crashed because of a major problem in the aircraft structure. However, the CAAC experts warn against jumping to hasty conclusions. It is not yet known whether the structural element became detached from the rest of the aircraft before or after the impact.
In autumn 2019, cracks appeared on an important component of Boeing 737 NG aircraft. It was about attaching the wings to the fuselage. Since the shape of the elements is reminiscent of cucumber forks, they are called Pickle Fork. In some cases, they showed material fatigue. As a result, all affected jets had to undergo a security check.
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Eastern Airlines said Thursday the plane in question had no “pickle fork history.” Nevertheless, the airline is leaving all of its 223 Boeing 737 NG on the ground for the time being. The reason given is an “extensive security check”. The authorities had ordered the “grounding”, but so far only for the 737 from China Eastern, not for the aircraft of this type with other Chinese airlines.
A found black box is badly damaged
It is also unclear whether the first of two “black boxes” found can be evaluated. The box was badly damaged and it was not known whether the data could be read, the CAAC said on Thursday. The second box had not been found as of Thursday afternoon.
The voice recorder and flight data recorder are extremely important in finding the cause of the mysterious crash. Flight MU 5735 took off from Kunming at 1:16 p.m. local time and was about to approach Guangzhou at 2:20 p.m. Suddenly, from 29,100 feet, the jet dropped rapidly to 7,425 feet, recovered briefly and regained altitude, then pitched over and plummeted almost vertically to the ground.
Amateur footage is said to show the crash. While this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, it’s considered likely that they’re actually documenting the horrific event. However, the recordings are not detailed enough to substantiate the widespread suspicion that the crash could be due to missing parts.
Assumptions by some aviation experts that it could be an extended suicide of one of the pilots have not yet been proven either. One thing is certain: The course of flight MU 5735 in its last minutes and seconds was extremely unusual – even for a crash.
More: Flight MU 5735: A crash full of mysteries