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Yuanyue Dang

The cause of China’s worst plane crash in 30 years remains unknown, with Chinese authorities opting to not file a progress report on the third anniversary of the disaster.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 was flying from the southwestern city of Kunming to the southern city of Guangzhou on March 21, 2022 when it plunged into the side of a mountain near Wuzhou in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, killing all 123 passengers and nine crew.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) convention requires the country conducting an air accident investigation to publish the final investigation report within 12 months of the event. If this is not done, the investigating authority must publish an annual update on the anniversary of the accident each year.
Instead of a final report on the Boeing 737-800 crash, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) released updates in 2023 and 2024. But it did not do so on Friday for the third anniversary.


The incident was China’s worst air crash since 1994 and ended the country’s world-record run for aviation safety. Before the crash, Chinese carriers had amassed more than 100 million hours of safe flying.
A family member of one of the crash victims told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that they had not been told how the investigation was progressing, only learning about last year’s briefing from the news.
The CAAC said in last year’s briefing that its investigation had found that the preflight qualifications of the crew, maintenance staff, airport support staff and air traffic controllers were all “in line with requirements”.
It also said last year that there was “no abnormality” in the plane’s radio communications before the crash, there was no “dangerous weather” at the crash site and “no evidence that there were any dangerous goods in the cargo or baggage”.
In 2023, the report on the first anniversary of the crash said: “Due to the complexity and rarity of this accident, the investigation is still in progress”.
In May 2022, citing people familiar with an early assessment of the crash by US officials, The Wall Street Journal reported that the crash might have been the result of a deliberate manoeuvre to dive the plane.


The United States, as the country of manufacture of the crashed aircraft, was involved in the investigation.
The CAAC did not confirm or deny the report, saying only that it had received confirmation from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that the agency’s investigators had “not released any information about the investigation to any media”.
China Eastern Airlines said at the time: “Any informal speculation could interfere with the investigation of the accident.”
The NTSB and Boeing declined to comment on the 2022 report.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chinese authorities opt out of issuing update on MU5735 crash investigation

Chinese authorities opt out of issuing update on MU5735 crash investigation