Pilot may lose consciousness when Chinese plane crashes 'vertically'

China Eastern's plane carrying 132 people plunged almost vertically at a speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour, which could cause the pilot to lose consciousness, according to experts.

Video of what appeared to be the final moments of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 was widely shared on Chinese social media, hours after the plane crashed into a mountainside in Guangxi province on Sunday. March 21, showing the plane almost descending vertically.

British aviation expert Sally Gethin believes that the cause of the MU5735 crash is very different from previous Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crashes. On these two flights, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) malfunctioned and caused the plane to raise its nose too high, resulting in stalls and crashes.

Gethin thinks it's still too early to predict the cause of the crash with MU5735, but thinks the tail of the plane may have malfunctioned. According to her, when the plane plunged vertically for nearly two minutes, the G-force was so great that it caused blood to rush to the brains of the pilot and those on board.

This pressure will cause the pilot to lose consciousness and lose control of the aircraft. However, flight data showed that during the descent, the plane regained horizontal in about 10-20 seconds, indicating that one or both pilots had regained consciousness and tried to save the plane but in vain.

Data collected by Flightradar24 shows that the plane was flying at an altitude of nearly 9,000 meters at about 14:20 on March 21, more than an hour after takeoff, when it suddenly began to descend. After briefly regaining altitude at more than 2,000 meters, the plane continued to descend at a speed of nearly 600 km / h in the last few seconds.

Flight data shows that the MU5735 plane dropped sharply and fell almost vertically.

Rescue teams were immediately deployed to the scene, but none of the 132 people on board, including 123 passengers and nine crew members, is thought to have survived, turning it into an air disaster. China's deadliest in decades.

Experts say that when examining the scene, investigators will especially focus on the altitude rudder, the plane's nose controls and controls, said Juan Browne, a Boeing 777 pilot and vlogger. famous for analyzing aviation incidents, said.

"There's really only one thing that can cause an airplane to descend vertically, and that's the rudder," Browne said, noting that if it weren't for problems with these components, the plane would have constantly jumping up and down.

According to Browne, it is "extremely rare" for a plane to crash in such an almost vertical state.

Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, said that MU5735's flight data was "very unusual", but stressed it was "too early" to draw conclusions. .

The hill is on fire at the scene of the China Eastern plane crash on March 21.

It is not clear if investigators have recovered the plane's black boxes. This device can help them obtain information such as aircraft movements, pilot maneuvers and cockpit sounds. They may also analyze video from a security camera operated by a local mining company or video from a dash cam of a car moving near the scene to look at the accident from a different angle.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was "ready to assist with investigative efforts if requested", while Boeing said it was coordinating and ready to assist China Eastern Airlines.

Flight MU5735 departed from Changshui Kunming International Airport, Kunming City, Yunnan Province at 13:15 on March 21, and is expected to land in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. However, the plane crashed more than an hour after takeoff. China Eastern grounded all of its 737-800 planes after the crash, but has not yet released information on casualties.