China: Plane carrying 132 crashes causes forest fire; casualties unknown

According to China’s civil aviation officials, a China Eastern Airlines plane carrying 132 people — 123 passengers and nine crew members – crashed in the southwestern region of Guangxi on Monday.

On social media, images of the collision showed a big fire roaring on a mountainside. There is no immediate word on the number of people who have died. Reuters stated that emergency and rescue personnel have been sent and are on their way. Airline and Boeing – the plane was a Boeing-737 – representatives have not yet commented on the crash.

China Eastern flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, according to flight tracking service FlightRadar24. The aircraft was seen making a fast drop on radar, and contact was lost over Wuzhou city, according to reports.

“At present, it has been confirmed that this flight has crashed. The CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) has activated the emergency mechanism and sent a working group to the scene,” the aviation body said in a statement.