No survivors have been found as rescuers search the rugged, charred mountainside where it is believed that no foreigners were on board.
Family members have gathered at the destination and departure airports hoping to at least find the remains of their loved one’s in order to accord them a decent send off.
A China Eastern Airlines aircraft with 132 people on board crashed in mountains in south China today while on a flight from the city of Kunming to Guangzhou.
The Boeing 737 plane crashed in the countryside near Wuzhou city in the Guangxi region. It “caused a mountain [of] fire”, CCTV said, adding that rescue teams were dispatched to the scene.
There was no word on the cause of the crash of the plane, which flight-tracking website Flightradar24 identified as a six-year-old 737-800 aircraft.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash, state media reported.
“We are shocked to learn of the China Eastern MU5735 accident,” state broadcaster CCTV reported Xi saying, while he also called for “all efforts” towards the rescue and to find out the “cause of the accident as soon as possible”.
Local media reported that flight MU5735 had not arrived at its scheduled destination in Guangzhou after it took off from the city of Kunming shortly after 1pm (05:00 GMT), citing airport staff.
The flight-tracking ended at 2:22pm (06:22 GMT) at an altitude of 3,225 feet (983 metres) and a speed of 376 knots (696km/hour).
It had been due to land at 3:05pm (07:05 GMT).
By the time of going to the press, the number of casualties was not immediately known as investigations are currently ongoing.
