Aviation Expert: "Captain of 'Crashed Chinese Passenger Plane' May Have Lost Control"

Passenger aircraft suspected object captured on CCTV. Photo by Pengpai, screen capture.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] An expert who watched a video showing an aircraft presumed to be a passenger plane belonging to China Eastern Airlines crashing vertically into a hillside analyzed that the plane's captain may have lost control.

On the 22nd, Chinese internet media Pengpai reported that the video was captured by a closed-circuit TV (CCTV) near the accident site at Beichen Mining Co., Ltd., and confirmed with Beichen Mining Co., Ltd. that the falling object in the video was the accident passenger plane. The video shows about three seconds of the plane crashing into the hillside almost vertically with the cockpit facing the ground.

Wang Yanan, editor-in-chief of the Chinese aerospace magazine "Aviation Knowledge," said in an interview with Pengpai, "The data just before the passenger plane's accident is unusual and very abnormal," and added, "The rapid fall from an altitude of about 8,000 meters means it lost lift, which means it was no longer able to fly normally."

Referring to the video of the passenger plane crashing vertically, he said, "The plane crashing with the cockpit or tail first means the pilot lost control of the aircraft, and all the pilot's actions no longer affect the state of the plane."

He added, "If the pilot had control over the passenger plane, they would have used the wings or auxiliary wings to glide or approach the ground at an inclined angle."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.