A Boeing 737-800 operated by China Eastern Airlines with over 130 people on board crashed into a mountain on Monday, according to Chinese state media outlet CGTN. There’s no word on casualties yet but horrifying video obtained by the Associated Press shows a plane going down vertically into the mountain.
The flight, MU5735, was travelling from Kunming, China to the city of Guanghzou, departing at 1:11 p.m. local time, according to FlightRadar24. The flight disappeared off radar in the Guangxi region and crashed near the city of Wuzhou.
There were initially conflicting accounts about whether the flight has 132 or 133 people on board. The flight had 123 passengers and nine crew members, according to CGTN, which was seemingly confirmed by the China Aviation Commission.
Chinese state media reports at least 23 fire trucks and 117 rescuers have been dispatched from the immediate area with hundreds more from surrounding areas on the way, but it’s not immediately clear what the situation on the ground looks like.
Local officials report that fires seen from a distance have been extinguished, according to CGTN. China Eastern has not yet released a statement about the crash but changed its website to a black-and-white version as a show on mournfulness, according to the CGTN.
Boeing has previously seen difficulty with its 737 Max planes, which have recently been declared safe again by the FAA. But the five-year-old plane that crashed in China today was not one of the controversial Max planes.