One of the great things about the aviation industry is that we collectively learn from every accident, and that causes the industry to become safer over time. Along those lines, China is outright refusing to disclose the cause of the country’s most fatal accident in history (the deadliest in 30 years), over “national security and social stability” concerns.
China refuses to reveal accident investigation results
In March 2022, we saw a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 crash while operating a domestic flight within China. This was a mysterious accident, as the plane suddenly entered a nosedive while at cruise altitude, and crashed into the ground. To state the obvious, these kinds of accidents are exceedingly rare.
As you’d expect, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was leading the investigation, though transparency hasn’t exactly been a priority. Around two years after the accident, the CAAC issued an updated report, claiming that the crash was “very complicated and rare.”
While regulators didn’t state what caused the accident, they ruled out many factors. The agency reported there were no abnormalities with aircraft control commands or with radio communication, there was no bad weather in the area, the plane wasn’t carrying any dangerous goods, and the pilots were fully certified. As you might guess, that revealed very little about the actual cause of the investigation.
So there’s now a concerning update, as flagged by Jon Ostrower. A government information disclosure request was filed in China regarding this accident, demanding more details on the progress of the investigation. That request was denied by the CAAC. The reason? “Disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.” This decision was made in accordance with Article 14 and Article 36(3) of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information.
This is a very alarming precedent to set
What can really be said here? I just find it unconscionable that a government would actively cover up the results of an accident investigation, based on the fear that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.”
In the weeks following the accident, sources with knowledge of the matter (but not speaking on the record) suggested that the accident was intentional. Now, that doesn’t tell us who caused the plane to crash.
More often than not, if someone takes down the plane intentionally with no communication to air traffic control, it’s one of the pilots, since they’re the ones with access to the flight deck. Of course another form of terrorism also can’t be ruled out.
The issue with not revealing the details of an investigation is that nothing can be learned from it, and aviation can’t get safer. For example, if the country believes it was one of the pilots who took down the plane, has a two person flight deck rule been implemented, to ensure there are always at least two people in the flight deck? After all, historically most pilot suicides have occurred when pilots were alone in the flight deck.
It’s really hard to have faith in the safety of an aviation ecosystem when regulators aren’t even willing to be transparent about the cause of an accident.
Bottom line
China is refusing to reveal the cause of a March 2022 China Eastern Boeing 737 accident, which was the country’s deadliest aviation accident in three decades. An official report has ruled out a lot of factors, but regulators are refusing to share anything further, claiming that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.”
What do you make of China’s refusal to share the cause of the 2022 China Eastern accident?
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