A plane with 132 people on board crashed in the Guangxi region of China on Monday. Some unverified videos initially posted by a Chinese media outlet have shown the plane diving nose-first into the ground, but authorities have only said that parts of the wreckage have been found so far.
The weird part is that this model – the Boeing 747-800 NG – has a pretty good track record when it comes to safety. The last fatal crash of this model happened because of a pilot error.
That track record isn’t stopping Boeing stocks from taking a hit, though. The company’s shares dropped more than 6% when the New York Stock Exchange opened trading on Monday.
Key comments:
“The 737 NG has been in operation for 25 years and has an excellent safety record,” said Paul Hayes, director of air safety and insurance at an aviation consulting firm. “I’m not going to speculate on what happened but if the Flightradar24 logs are accurate, something seems to have happened abruptly and the plane nose dived from cruising altitude.”
“Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735,” said Boeing in a statement. “We are working with our airline customer and are ready to support them. Boeing is in contact with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and our technical experts are prepared to assist with the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.”
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