A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed onto a mountain in southern China yesterday, causing a large fire, shortly after losing contact with air traffic control and dropping thousands of meters in under three minutes.
Mainland media said there were no signs of survivors in the country's worst air disaster in nearly a decade.
The crash prompted an unusually swift public reaction from President Xi Jinping, who said he was "shocked" and ordered an immediate investigation into its cause.
The Boeing 737-800 flight from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou "lost airborne contact over Wuzhou" in the Guangxi region yesterday afternoon, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
"This flight has crashed," the CAAC said, adding the jet was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members.
The Immigration Department told The Standard it had not received any request for assistance from Hongkongers and that it will keep in contact with the Hong Kong Economic Office in Guangdong.
Hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to the scene in Teng county near the city of Wuzhou, state media reported, as nearby villagers rushed to help the rescue effort.
"Everyone went to the mountains," Tang Min, who runs a small restaurant a few kilometers from the crash site, said.
Fears for the fate of the jet spread yesterday afternoon as media reported that China Eastern flight MU5735 had not arrived as planned in Guangzhou after taking off from Kunming shortly after 1pm.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed no data for the flight after 2.22pm.
The tracker showed the plane sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 3,225 feet in three minutes, before flight information ceased.
State broadcaster CCTV said the crash "caused a mountain fire" which was later extinguished.
One villager told a local news site that the plane had "completely fallen apart" and he had seen forest areas destroyed by the fire it caused when crashing into the mountainside.
China Eastern changed its website to black and white and opened an emergency assistance hotline.
A January company report said China Eastern had 289 Boeing 737-series aircraft in its 751-strong fleet.
Xi called for "all efforts" toward the rescue and to find out the "cause of the accident as soon as possible," according to CCTV.
"We are shocked to learn of the China Eastern MU5735 accident," he said, calling for "the absolute safety of the sector and people's lives."
The arrivals board at Guangzhou airport showed the jet's flight information for hours after it had crashed as airport staff held up signs to help relatives of the passengers assemble.
As dusk fell, there was still no information on the passengers.
A villager near the crash site surnamed Liu told state-run China News Service that he had driven a motorbike to the scene after hearing a loud explosion.
He said he saw debris on the ground, including an aircraft wing and clothing hanging from trees.
State media said all 737-800s in China Eastern's fleet were ordered grounded. China had enjoyed an enviable air safety record in recent years as the country was crisscrossed by newly built airports and serviced by new airlines established to match breakneck growth over the last few decades.
A Henan Airlines flight crashed in Heilongjiang province in 2010, killing at least 42 out of 92 people on board. It was the last Chinese commercial passenger flight crash that caused civilian casualties. The deadliest Chinese flight crash was a China Northwest Airlines crash in 1994, which killed all 160 onboard.
