US Data Suggests China Jet Was Deliberately Crashed

Four years after a China Eastern jet plunged almost 30,000 feet into a mountainside, newly disclosed US data is sharpening questions around what happened in the cockpit. A report released by the US National Transportation Safety Board shows both engine fuel switches on Flight MU5735 were manually moved from "run" to "cutoff" while the Boeing 737-800 cruised at 29,000 feet, causing engine speeds to fall, reports CNN. All 132 people on board died in the March 2022 crash in southern China.

AeroTime reports data shows the autopilot was then rapidly disconnected and "the control column was then pulled hard left and pushed forward, sending the aircraft into an inverted barrel roll and a steep dive." The plane's generators lost power at 26,000 feet, at which point the flight data recorder stopped recording. The cockpit recorder continued to work via battery. The NTSB did not keep copies of the four voice recordings US investigators were able to pull from it; they were passed to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which last commented on the crash in a 2024 statement that reiterated no issues had been detected with the plane, crew, or weather.

The CAAC has previously rejected suggestions the crash was intentional. The Times of London reports the NTSB was originally asked by China to pull data from the flight recorders and passed that info on within two weeks of doing so. The data now released by the NTSB came in response to a Chinese citizen's freedom of information request. China has yet to issue a final report on the crash.