The cause of China's deadliest plane crash in more than a decade is still unknown but pilot inexperience can probably be ruled out—the pilot and two co-pilots on Flight 5735 had a combined 39,000 hours of flying experience, the New York Times reports. According to reports in mainland Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers, pilot Yang Yongda, 32, had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience and first co-pilot Zhang Zhengping was one of China's most experienced pilots, with almost 32,000 hours of experience, and had flown a wide variety of aircraft over the last few years.
The Boeing China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plunged suddenly in a near-nosedive from its cruising altitude in good weather Monday and experts say pilot suicide can't be ruled out at this stage. "Certainly an intentional downing is always a part of any investigation, and especially with this particular flight profile," Hassan Shahidi, chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation, tells the Times, though he warns against jumping to conclusions. More answers could arrive soon. A black box believed to be the cockpit voice recorder has been recovered with the crash site, along with what is believed to be an engine, per the Wall Street Journal.
Human remains have also been recovered from the site in a mountainous area of Guangxi province, but there is no sign of any survivors from the 132 passengers and crew, reports the BBC. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered an extensive investigation. Authorities said Wednesday that air traffic controllers had been in communication with the plane until just before that sudden descent. "From what we know, the performance of the three pilots had been good and their family life relatively harmonious," a China Eastern representative told reporters. (More plane crash stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
