A Chinese airline grounded its entire Boeing 737-800 fleet on Monday after a passenger plane carrying 132 people went down, with officials said to be concerned all those onboard have died.
FlightRadar24, the Swedish tracking site, said the China Eastern jet involved in the accident was six years old. It added that the airline had 109 such planes, all of which are temporarily banned from flying, according to state media.
The crash – China’s worst air disaster in almost a decade – saw the plane crash in a mountainous region in southern China. Smoke could be seen rising from hills near the city of Wuzhou, in Teng county, in the province of Guangxi, after the Boeing 737 plummeted 30,000ft in two minutes. There were 123 passengers and nine crew members onboard.
More than 12 hours after communication was lost with the plane, there was still no word of survivors on Monday night. The People’s Daily newspaper reported earlier that a firefighter had said there was no sign of life among the scattered debris.
