The Boeing (BA.N) 737-800 crashed into mountains in the southwestern Guangxi region on March 21, 2022, in China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years, according to Reuters.
Very little information
On the eve of the first anniversary of the tragedy earlier this week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a three-paragraph statement that offered few details and no data from the plane's "black box" that could provide clues about the crash. The plane crashed abruptly into mountainous terrain while flying at an altitude of more than 8,800 meters.
Rescue workers at the scene of the China Eastern plane crash in Guangxi, China on March 23, 2022.
"Because the accident is very complicated and extremely rare, the investigation is being conducted in depth," the CAAC said, adding that experts have examined more than 100 pieces of debris.
"The technical investigation team will then continue to carry out work such as cause analysis, testing and verification, and will release relevant information in a timely manner according to the progress of the investigation," the CAAC wrote.
International Civil Aviation Organization rules require countries investigating plane crashes to make their final reports public within 12 months. If that is not possible, an interim statement must be issued on each anniversary, detailing the progress of the investigation and any safety issues identified.
But Greg Waldron, Asia editor of the publication FlightGlobal, said the brevity of the CAAC’s annual report was unusual. Annual reports published by other Asian countries typically run from dozens to hundreds of pages long and include detailed analyses.
“The goal is not to assign blame, but to improve safety standards across the aviation industry as a whole,” he added, adding that the MU5735 tragedy, like all other complex aircraft disasters, had the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder recovered days after the crash.
"Data from this device should have provided detailed information about the conditions of the aircraft and in the cockpit at the time of the accident," he said.
It takes two years or more
Investigations so far have focused on how the plane's major components were functioning before the crash, while also looking at air traffic control, passengers and what the plane was carrying, according to China's aviation regulator.
Crash investigators are examining the actions of the crew in the flight deck and have found no evidence of a technical problem, Reuters sources said in May 2022 (about 2 months after the accident).
Responding to online rumors of a deliberate accident, the CAAC said at the time that the speculation had "seriously misled the public" and "interfered with the investigation into the accident".
A final report on the cause of the accident could take two years or more to compile, Chinese officials said last year.
The black box was recovered days after China Eastern Airlines flight MU5375 crashed.
A summary of a preliminary report released last year before the plane’s black boxes had been analyzed did not reveal the focus of the investigation. The report said the crew was qualified, the plane was properly maintained, the weather was good and there were no dangerous goods on board.
The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been sent to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) laboratory in Washington. NTSB investigators have also traveled to China.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said last week that the agency had a “really good working relationship with China” during the investigation.
The predecessor of the 737-800 is the Boeing 737 MAX, which is widely flown and has been in use since 1997, achieving a high safety level.
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