New Delhi: The flight data from the Boeing 737-800 that crashed in March this year killing 123 passengers and nine crew members that someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the China Eastern Airlines jet, reported the Wall Street Journal. The information was shared as per what was said by the people familiar with the U.S. officials’ preliminary assessment of what led to the accident.
According to an official related to the investigation, the data recovered from the black box indicates that the inputs into the controls led to the sudden dive of the plane.
“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” a person familiar with the American investigation was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal. This investigation includes an analysis of information extracted from the plane’s damaged flight data recorder.
The person quoted by the Journal also said that the Chinese authorities, who are leading the investigation, so far haven’t flagged any mechanical or flight-control problems with the plane involved in the March 21 crash in southern China.
That model is a workhorse of the global aviation industry and is part of a family of Boeing aircraft that has one of the best safety records in commercial flying, the person added.
While the investigators are looking at the actions of the pilot before the accident, there is also speculation that someone broke into the cockpit and crashed the plane. However, there was no emergency code issued from the flight before the crash.
While the Airline has reaffirmed in a statement to The Wall Street Journal that it is not responsible for the crash. Meanwhile, neither Boeing Co. nor air-safety regulators have been working on any service bulletins or safety directives stemming from the crash, people familiar with the matter told Wall Street Journal.
Such messages are issued if the authorities believed that the crew faced some kind of difficulties, so something like that does not happen again.
According to a preliminary report summary released by the Chinese government on April 20, the data restoration and analysis of the damaged black boxes were still in progress, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In March, the Boeing 737-800 jet, which was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in the mountains of Guangxi, after a sudden dip in the altitude, killing all 123 passengers and nine crew members aboard. It was mainland CHina's deadliest crash in the last 28 years.