Ben Nikpour - Week 9: Boeing 737-800 Crashes in China
On Monday, March 21, a plane crashed in China. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-800. It crashed into a remote mountain valley in South China. The plane took off from Kunming, China, at 1:11 pm. The flight was supposed to be a typical one-and-a-half-hour flight to Guangzhou, China. According to the reports from flight radars, the aircraft crashed over an hour into the flight. At 2:20 pm the plane plummeted over 21,000 feet. Before the incident, the plane was flying at an altitude of over 29,000 feet. At around 8,000 feet high, the plane began to ascend for a few moments before plummeting again till it crashed.
The weather at the time of the crash is most likely not the cause of the incident. It consisted of moderate winds of less than 12 mph, visibility of 10 miles, and no rain.
While the plane crashed in a rural area, there were some witnesses to the event. Residents of the area reported to Chinese News Sources that they heard a loud roar in the sky and witnessed the plane sharply fall to the ground. They also reported seeing fire and smoke across the sky and the area where the plane hit.
Unfortunately, the plane crashed in a remote location, making it partly inaccessible to many large rescue forces and equipment. Three of the side are surrounded by mountains, and the area lacks electricity. Still, a team of 1,000 firefighters and 100 local militia were sent to help assist at the crash site. No survivors were found, and it is unlikely that any will be found.
The Boeing 737-800, the model of the plane that crashed, is used around the world. Thousands of these planes exist, and thousands of people use them daily. This crash could possibly affect the Boeing company as many people may be reluctant to use their planes.
Personally, I am terrified of planes, and this is crash only makes me more nervous to fly. I am thankful that I heard about this tragedy after I flew the day before, or I would not have been able to get on a flight. I am also sending my thoughts and prays to all the victims and families involved.
What do you think caused the crash? Does this make you more nervous to fly?
Boeing 737-800 Crashes in Remote Mountain Valley in Southern China
Whenever I hear stories of planes crashing, I become more nervous to fly. In this situation, I think the heavy winds caused the plane to crash. When flying, I like to think about how there are less plane crashes than car crashes in a day.
ReplyDeleteWith the absence of any weather or technical related problem reported, it looks like the plane might have been manually crashed by the pilot or a passenger. It is scary to think about that your entire life when you are flying is in the hands of someone else. Many plane-related incidents create mass fear, such as the mysterious disappearance of a plane into the Indian Ocean in 2014, or two crashes from the same model of plane occurring just months apart in 2018-2019. However, whenever I think about plane crashes, I remember the statistic that there is only a one in eleven million chance of dying in a plane crash. We go in cars all the time (1 in 5000 chance of death), so we shouldn't need to be afraid of planes.
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