Beijing ‘covered up passenger plane suicide crash that killed all 132 on board’: Data showed pilots wrestled over controls after engines were switched off
Chinese authorities knew within weeks that a pilot had deliberately brought down a passenger jet in a catastrophic crash that killed all 132 people on board, US officials have sensationally claimed.
Fresh details published by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) appear to confirm long-running suspicions that China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 was intentionally crashed into mountains in Guangxi province in March 2022 – only for Beijing to suppress information.
The Boeing 737 had been cruising between Kunming and Guangzhou when both engines were manually shut down, the autopilot was disengaged, and the aircraft was forced into a steep nosedive, according to the US findings.
Data extracted from the flight recorders showed a terrifying struggle inside the cockpit, with two pilots fighting over the controls as the jet plunged towards the ground.
The NTSB said: ‘It was found that while cruising at 29,000ft, the fuel switches on both engines moved from the run position to the cut-off position. Engine speeds decreased after the fuel switch movement.’
Graphs released by the American agency showed opposing movements on the pilot’s control yokes, indicating one crew member was attempting to recover the aircraft while another continued forcing it into a dive.
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.
