Explainer: What is Known About the Crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735

Police officers stand guard at the entrance to a village near the site of a plane crash in Tengxian county, Wuzhou city, in Guangxi Province on March 21, 2022.-/AFP via Getty Images

A China Eastern Airlines jet carrying 132 people crashed into the mountains of southeast China on the afternoon of March 21. The reason for the nosedive of the six-year-old Boeing 737-800 is baffling aviation experts.

What Caused the Plane to Crash

So far, the cause is unknown, but nothing has been ruled out.

“We are unable to make a clear judgment about the cause of the accident with the information available now,” Zhu Tao, Director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said at a press conference on March 22.