China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed on March 21, 2022, killing all 132 people on board, according to multiple reports. The aircraft abruptly took an almost-vertical nosedive and crashed into a mountain in Guangxi province. Pilots failed to respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers or nearby aircraft during the descent.
The plane entered a sudden nosedive from a cruising altitude of roughly 29,000 feet to 7,400 feet shortly before scheduled descent, flight data shows. It then made a brief pull-up to 8,500 feet before entering a second nosedive that caused the crash, with the entire incident lasting approximately two minutes. What caused the plane to enter the sudden nosedive and why the pilots failed to respond to calls remain unknown.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China reported no faults or evidence of anything abnormal before takeoff with the aircraft, engines, weather, or communications. A Chinese regulator said the crew held valid licenses, had sufficient rest, passed health checks, and there were no dangerous goods or hazardous weather reported. Two badly damaged black box flight recorders were recovered from the crash site, multiple reports indicate.
Chinese aviation authorities have not disclosed the official cause of the crash and formally refused to publish the final report in June 2025. Chinese authorities declared that disclosure of the report may endanger national security and social stability.