It appears that none of the 132 people on board the plane that crashed Monday in the southern China region of Guangxi survived the crash. Rescuers search the forested hills where the plane crashed, but have so far found no survivors, the AP news agency reported on Tuesday.
The China Eastern Airlines plane suddenly ended up in a steep dive from 9,000 meters, then briefly climbed back up a few hundred meters, but then dived again. This is reported by the AP news agency based on Flightradar24. One and a half minutes after the start of the dive, the data connection with the aircraft was lost. The crash started a fire large enough to be seen from space and left a deep pit in the mountainside.
The cause is unknown. Chinese state media and authorities say they have no indication that the pilot reported problems or other information that could explain the cause of the disaster. Serious aircraft disasters often require months or years of investigation to determine the cause.