US officials have accused Chinese authorities of covering up a deliberate plane crash that killed all 132 people on board. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reportedly confirmed that the pilot of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 intentionally brought down the aircraft in March 2022.
Flight recorder data showed that the engines were manually shut off and the autopilot disengaged, causing the plane to nosedive into mountains in Guangxi province. The NTSB revealed that fuel switches on both engines were moved from run to cut-off, and cockpit recordings indicated two pilots were fighting over the controls as the aircraft fell.
The three pilots on the flight deck were Captain Yang Hongda, 32, first officer Zhang Zhengping, 59, and trainee second officer Ni Gongtai, 27. Speculation has centred on Zhang, a senior pilot who had recently lost his rank of captain. No official conclusion on responsibility has been published.
Beijing has faced accusations of suppressing information about the disaster. A report suggesting pilot error was scrubbed from Chinese social media shortly after the crash. The crew made no distress call and no emergency transponder code was transmitted before the crash.
The incident joins a list of suspected pilot suicide crashes, including the 2015 Germanwings disaster and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
