A Chinese Boeing 737 jet plane with 132 onboard crashed in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. Out of 132 people, 123 were passengers, and 9 crew members, who are now being feared dead.
The jet plane crashed in the mountanious region that catched fire after the disaster. Several videos have surfaced on Twitter showing final moments before the crashed into mountains.
The alleged video shows Boeing 737 nosediving into mountain forest.
Hopes to find the survivors among the 132 people travelling by the crashed Chinese aircraft in the thick forests in the southern Guangxi province receded as the night fell making efforts by scores of rescuers difficult.
The Boeing 737 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which flew from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in Tengxian County near the city of Wuzhou, causing a mountain fire in the worst air disaster in the country in over a decade.
State television showed teams of rescuers armed with search lights scurrying through the sprawling area in the forests on the remote mountainous area Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as darkness enveloped the forest region.
While the airline has announced that no foreigners were on board, families of some crew members from the crashed Eastern Airlines flight have arrived in the company’s branch office in Yunnan Province and they were being assisted to “work on follow-up issues”, state-run CGTN-TV reported.
A "shocked" Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered "swift action to identify the cause of the crash and to strengthen the safety overhaul of the civil aviation sector to ensure the absolute safety of the sector and people's lives,” Xinhua reported.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has promptly mobilized rescue forces in the city of Wuzhou to the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines flight, the Southern Theater Command said on Monday.
According to the official media, the plane sharply descended onto the mountainous area and crashed.
Footage shot by locals in their phones showed the area of the crash was engulfed by massive mountainous fire with explosions heard in the background.
There is no official word here yet on the number of casualties or survivors except speculation about the unlikelihood of survivors.
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