Beijing hits out at shock revelation about doomed China Eastern Airlines MU5735 flight

Chinese state media has unleashed on “Western media” coverage of the China Eastern plane crash that killed 132 people.

Chinese state media hit out at Western media over articles alleging the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 was deliberate.

Chinese state media has hit out at a report and subsequent coverage that the China Eastern Airlines plane crash that killed 132 people may have been intentional.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the US officials’ preliminary assessment of the crash, data suggests someone in the cockpit pushed the Boeing 737-800 into a “near-vertical” descent.

Data from a black box recovered at the crash site near the city of Wuzhou in the southern province of Guangxi indicated that controls in the cockpit led the plane into its deadly dive, sources told the newspaper.

Chinese state media has hit out at the report. Picture: CNS/AFP

“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” one source close to the matter told the publication, the NY Post reports.

Chinese authorities have yet to cite mechanical or flight control issues in the March 21 crash that killed everyone on-board, the source added.

However now, the Global Times has quoted Chinese civil aviation industry analysts calling the US media “unprofessional” for publishing the report and causing “unnecessary interference with the ongoing investigation”.

“Such unsubstantiated reports amount to vicious smearing against China,” the CAAC told the Global Times.

The March 21 crash killed everyone on-board.

The CAAC added that the NTSB “made it clear that it did not release any information related to the investigation to any media.”

Qiao Shanxun, secretary-general of the Expert Committee of the Henan Aviation Industry Association, said the US is in breach of the code if they did in fact leak information to The Wall Street Journal.

“This kind of behaviour by relevant parties in the US, whether intentional or unintentional, violates the convention, as only the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has the right to publish any relevant information on the investigation result,’ he said.

The Boeing 737-89P was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou.

China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed earlier this year.

The Global Times wrote that while the investigation is still underway, some foreign media outlets, particularly those from the US, have been constantly speculating on the cause and other details of the incident, in an apparent vicious smear campaign against China.

As a result, the CAAC has refuted the recent rumour of the cause of the crash, saying the accident was still under investigation, and no conclusions had been drawn on the cause and nature of the accident yet.