China is one of the world’s top three air travel markets and has dramatically improved safety since a string of crashes in the 1990s and 2000s. The crash of a China Eastern flight comes after more than a decade free of major air disasters.
Carriers have suffered heavy financial losses as the government tries to eliminate COVID-19 with a “zero tolerance” strategy that bars most foreign visitors from China and has disrupted travel by suspending access temporarily to major cities. Passenger numbers within China exceeded the United States in 2020 for the first time, according to Boeing Co. That was partly because populous China reopened to domestic travel relatively quickly after the initial coronavirus outbreak. Boeing forecasts 5.
State media reported all 737-800s in China Eastern’s fleet were ordered grounded. Aviation experts said it is unusual to ground an entire fleet of planes unless there is evidence of a problem with the model. China has more 737-800s than any other country — nearly 1,200 — and if identical planes at other Chinese airlines are grounded, it “could have a significant impact on domestic travel,” said aviation consultant IBA.
China Eastern’s last fatal crash was in November 2004, when a bombardier CRJ-200 plunged into a frozen lake just after takeoff from the Inner Mongolian city of Baotou, killing 53 people on board and two on the ground. Regulators blamed ice that had collected on the wings.The Civil Aviation Administration of China and China Eastern have sent officials to the crash site. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said a senior investigator was chosen to help, and the U.S.
The ruling Communist Party wants to compete with them by making its own jetliners and eventually exporting them. State-owned COMAC, or the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, has released a short-range jetliner, the ARJ21, for up to 105 passengers, and the larger but short-range C919 with up to 190 seats. The company says it is working on a long-range, twin-aisle plane, the C929, for as many as 290 passengers.This version has corrected the plane that crashed in 2010 carried 96 people and 52 of them survived, not that the 44 who died was the total number on board.
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