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China place crash: DGCA puts Boeing 737 fleet on ‘enhanced surveillance’ after deadly crash
As many as 132 people were on board the China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in the southwestern Chinese province of Guangxi.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday put the Boeing 737 fleet of Indian carriers on “enhanced surveillance” hours after an aircraft of the same design (Boeing 737-800) of the China Eastern Airlines crashed in the southwestern Chinese province of Guangxi. The announcement was made by DGCA’s chief Arun Kumar, according to news agency PTI.
“Flight safety is serious business and we are closely studying the situation. In the interim, we are focusing on enhanced surveillance of our 737 fleets,” Kumar told PTI.
He was responding to questions on steps the DGCA would take after Monday’s air tragedy in China. At present, three airlines in India -- SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India Express -- have Boeing 737 aircraft in their fleet.
As many as 132 people were on board the China Eastern Airlines flight. None of them were foreigners. The flight that was travelling from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou “lost airborne contact over Wuzhou” in the Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.
It is feared that no one will survive the crash, one of the worst ever aviation disasters in China since 2010 and the first fatal crash for China Eastern since 2004.
According to reports, China is known to have some of the best airline safety records globally for a decade. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) had said that the 2010 crash happened when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on approach to Yichun airport. Forty-four of the total 96 on board were killed.
The cause of the crash is currently under investigation. China Eastern Airlines has provided a hotline for relatives of those on board and sent a working group to the site.
Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed shock over the crash and called for all-out efforts to locate survivors.
(With agency inputs)
