NTSB Leak: China Eastern 737 Crashed After Both Engines Were Shut Off Inflight

In March 2022, a China Eastern Boeing 737 operating a domestic flight in China crashed shortly before starting its descent, killing all 132 people onboard. This was an unfathomable accident, as the plane suddenly entered a nosedive, even though investigators agreed that nothing was found to be wrong with the aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has been leading the investigation, and unfortunately hasn’t been terribly transparent about the cause of what happened. Just last year, the CAAC announced it would withhold a report on the accident, saying “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.” So authorities weren’t even claiming that they don’t know, they’re just saying that they’re not going to tell us.

Well, we now have a new clue as to what might’ve happened, and it only points even more to the widely held theory that this was a deliberate act (thanks to David for flagging this).

NTSB’s investigation on China Eastern 737 crash made public

The aviation industry at large deserves huge credit for the extent to which it prioritizes safety, and tries to learn from every accident to prevent something similar from happening in the future. The main exception to this seems to be when accidents happen in countries where they’d rather save face than actually make the skies safer.

So while the CAAC hasn’t at all been transparent with its findings, we’ve just seen the most meaningful release of data on this accident to date. Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information Act (CAAC) request was filed with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the accident, and that data is now available for download.

The widely held belief has been that this accident was a deliberate act, given that no maintenance issues were found, and planes don’t just nosedive toward the ground at cruising altitude for no reason. Here’s exactly what we’ve now learned about the sequence of events:

• Both engines were shut down almost simultaneously using the fuel cutoff switches (and on the 737, those can both be moved at once, even with one hand)
• Almost immediately thereafter, the autopilot was disconnected
• The control column was then pulled hard left and pushed forward, putting the plane into an inverted barrel roll

That order of events can only be explained as a deliberate act.

Of course the engine shutoff detail is pretty wild to consider, because in last year’s Air India Boeing 787 crash, the Dreamliner’s engines were shut off just seconds after takeoff. In the case of the Air India, there was simply no room to recover, since it happened just seconds after takeoff. In the China Eastern 737 situation, there was in theory time to recover, but when combined with putting the plane into a spin, well… that’s what sealed its fate.

The first officer of the flight remains the prime suspect

It of course sucks to speculate about a tragedy where people have lost their lives. But when the authorities responsible for investigating are actively covering up information, it’s only fair to point out some obvious possible factors.

Typically when a pilot intentionally downs a plane, there are lots of clues, at least in retrospect. Authorities in China have refused to release a whole lot of information, though there are details that are widely believed to be true.

For example, we know the captain on the flight was a 32-year-old with 6,700 flight hours, and it’s believed that he had just had a baby. He was doing great in his career.

The first officer, on the other hand, was a 59-year-old with a staggering 31,800 flight hours (this is as many hours as many pilots rack up in their entire career). Despite that, he was a first officer on a narrow body jet. Beyond that, he had reportedly been demoted from captain at some point, and had some issues with some simulator rides.

Authorities have refused to release details of who was in the cockpit at the time the engines were shut off. But this all happened shortly before the start of descent, which is the most common time during a flight for pilots to use the bathroom.

In some ways, the parallels between this and the 1999 crash of EgyptAir flight 990 are almost uncanny. That plane was also sent into a dive while at cruising altitude, with the person in the cockpit being a suspiciously experienced first officer (so much so that he was honorarily referred to as “captain”), and he was reportedly facing disciplinary action over his behavior.

Of course Egyptian authorities have also refused to acknowledge that this was an intentional act, instead insisting it was a catastrophic failure (US authorities reached a different conclusion).

Bottom line

In March 2022, a China Eastern Boeing 737 mysteriously crashed, killing all 132 people onboard. Chinese authorities have outright refused to reveal what happened, claiming that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability.”

An FOIA with the NTSB now sheds light on the cause of this tragedy. We know the fuel cutoff switches for the engines were simultaneously turned off, then the autopilot was disengaged, then the control column was pushed to send the plane into a nosedive.

I don’t think that leaves much about this situation to the imagination. And it clearly means that China believes acknowledging a pilot intentionally downing a plane would “endanger national security and social stability.” All those poor souls onboard…