- China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210
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China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 Accident summary Date November 21, 2004 Type Ice accumulation Site Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China Passengers 47 Crew 6 Injuries 0 Fatalities 55 (incl. 2 on ground) Survivors 0 Aircraft type Bombardier CRJ-200LR Operator China Eastern Airlines Tail number B-3072 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 (CES5210, MU5210) was a flight from Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport Shanghai, China. On November 21, 2004 it crashed into a park shortly after take off, killing all 53 passengers on board and two more people on the ground.
The aircraft took off at 08.20/8.20am local time (00.20/12.20am UTC/19.20/7.20pm ET). In less than a minute, it was out of control and crashed into a lake inside Nanhai Park, two kilometres from the airport. Eye witnesses reported seeing smoke near the plane shortly after take off, followed by shaking of the plane and then its eventual crash. The CVR recording contains the captain calling "What's wrong?" and passengers crying at the time of the crash.
The aircraft departed 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
Contents
Aircraft
- Model: Bombardier CRJ-200LR
- Registration: B-3072
- Serial Number: 7697
- Engine: General Electric CF34-3B1
- Year of Delivery: 2002
Crew members
- Flight Crew
- Captain: Wang Pin (王品);
- Vice Captain: Yang Guang (杨光);
- First Officer: Yi Qinwei (易沁炜);
- Flight Attendants: Huang Chongyan (黄崇燕), Shi Meimian (史美棉);
- Security Police: Jiang Chaohong (姜朝宏).
Passengers
52 of the total 53 passengers on board were Chinese citizens, and 1 was from Indonesia.[citation needed]
Weather
Weather at the time of crash was fine, although the temperature was below zero degrees Celsius. There was a rumor stating that the fuel was "frozen", causing the disaster. This was immediately proved to be impossible.
Investigation
The investigation revealed that the RegionalJet B-3072 aircraft was parked overnight at the Baotou Airport in cold weather conditions, which caused it to collect a layer of frost. The aircraft was not de-iced prior to flight, and during takeoff the frost contamination severely degraded its aerodynamic performance. As the jet rotated, it entered a stall from which the flight crew was unable to recover. The aircraft crashed into a frozen lake in Nanhai Park, about two kilometers from the runway, and also struck a park ticket office, killing two park employees, in addition to all 53 persons on board.[1]
Aftermath
In 2006, twelve people of China Eastern Airlines were found to be responsible and received administrative punishment.[1]
China Eastern no longer operates this route. All flights between Baotou and Shanghai are now operated by its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines as Flights 9438 and 9136.
Notes
- ^ a b Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
External links
- Topic on "11.21 Air Disaster" from People's Daily (in simplified Chinese)
- Accident database from airdisaster.com
- Accident aircraft photos from airliners.net
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Oct 14 Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701
Oct 14 MK Airlines Flight 1602
Oct 19 Corporate Airlines Flight 5966Oct 24 Martinsville crash
Nov 21 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210
Nov 28 KLM Flight 1673
Nov 30 Lion Air Flight 538Incidents resulting in at least 50 deaths shown in italics. Deadliest incident shown in bold smallcaps. Coordinates: 40°39′03″N 109°50′31″E / 40.65083°N 109.84194°E
Categories:- Airliner crashes caused by ice
- Aviation accidents and incidents in 2004
- 2004 meteorology
- History of Inner Mongolia
- Aviation accidents and incidents in China
- 2004 in China
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