Hours after the tragic plane crash in China, several videos of the accident started surfacing on social media. In one video, the plane is seen diving straight into the ground. Another show, minutes after the accident smoke starts billowing from the mountains where it crashed.
A China Eastern Airlines passenger jet with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains of southern China on Monday, China's Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. The jet involved in the accident was a Boeing 737 aircraft, however, the number of casualties and the cause of the crash is yet to be ascertained. The disaster prompted an unusually swift public reaction from President Xi Jinping, who said he was "shocked" and ordered an immediate investigation into its cause.
The Boeing 737-800 flight from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou "lost airborne contact over Wuzhou" in the Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
"This flight has crashed," the CAAC said, adding the jet was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members.
Hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to the scene in Teng county near the city of Wuzhou, state media reported, as nearby villagers rushed to help the rescue effort.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed no data for the flight after 2:22 pm. The tracker showed the plane sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 3,225 feet (8,870 to 982 metres) in three minutes, before flight information ceased.
