Horrifying footage has captured the apparent moment a China Eastern Boeing 737 that was carrying 132 people fell from the sky and erupted into flames in southern China on Monday.
The video — shared by local media — showed the plane nosediving towards the ground near the city of Wuzhou in the southern province of Guangxi.
The plane had been cruising at about 30,000 feet just moment before it suddenly started plunging vertically and crashed into remote mountains, officials said.
Separate footage showed heavy smoke and flames billowing from the crash site in the aftermath. Villagers also found debris from the plane scattered in the region, local media reported.
There was no immediate word on the number of dead and injured.
The People’s Daily cited a rescue official as saying Flight 5735 had disintegrated upon crashing and there was no sign of life among the debris.
The flight, which had been carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, crashed at about 2:30 p.m. local time, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.
The flight had taken off from the city of Kunming just after 1 p.m and was en route to Guangzhou.
Contact with the plane was lost at about 2:15 p.m. local time, the Guangxi provincial emergency management department said.
China Eastern said the cause of the crash was under investigation. The airline said it had set up a hotline for relatives of those on board.
With Post wires
