Early on March 21st, a Boeing 737 operated by China Eastern Airlines crashed into a mountainous region of China whilst flying between Kunming and Guangzhou. The plane was carrying 132 people in total – 123 passengers and nine crew. The plane came down in Teng County, Wuzhou, Guangxi, causing a forest fire. The fire was quickly brought under control.

According to Chinese news outlet Yicai, China Eastern has now said it will ground all of its Boeing 737-800s starting tomorrow. The airline has set up an emergency assistance telephone number for families and friends of the crew and passengers. It expressed its deep condolences to passengers and crew members who were onboard the flight.

The report quotes a statement from China Eastern which reads: "It is not yet clear whether the cause of the accident is related to the aircraft, but for safety reasons, the company has decided to suspend the operation of all its 737-800 aircraft from tomorrow, and the recovery time has not yet been determined."

The aircraft in question is not the previously troublesome Boeing 737 MAX, but rather the 737 NG, an earlier model of the plane. The 737-800 is one of the safest planes in the world, with more than 7,000 aircraft delivered and just 11 fatal accidents. The China Eastern plane was not old either, aged just 6.8 years according to ch-aviation.com.

In total, China Eastern operates 107 of the same aircraft type. Alongside these, it also flies some 39 737-700s from the same generation, but no move has been made to remove these from service. Routes that were previously operated by the 737-800 will move to a different aircraft type, potentially its large fleet of Airbus A320 family jets.

Cancellations begin to pour in

In a mark of respect to the victims of the crash and their families, the Chinese language website of China Eastern turned black and white earlier today. But this has not been enough to prevent mass cancellations hitting the carrier in the wake of the tragic accident. Bloomberg reports that, for the rest of Monday and Tuesday, the cancellation rate for the airline is running at around 82%.

For now, the service between Kunming and Guangzhou has been completely suspended, with tickets no longer available for purchase. China’s President Xi Jinping has urged rescue efforts to proceed with haste, however, signs of survivors are not looking good.

Immediately following the crash, the Wuzhou City Fire Rescue Detachment deployed 23 fire trucks and 117 fire and rescue personnel to the site. Shortly after, the Guangxi Fire and Rescue Corps dispatched some 538 rescue personnel from Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin, Beihai, Yulin, Hezhou, Laibin, and Hechi Detachment to reinforce.

Teng County People’s Hospital is reported by Yicai to have sent a number of medical staff and vehicles to the site to participate in the rescue too. Staff at the hospital were placed on standby. However, several hours later, no hospitals in the area had received any patients. A reporter from the local media called around several facilities including the Tengxian Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and The Central Health Center of Teng County Township, but none have reported any arrivals.

Flight tracking websites and CCTV from the local area indicate that the 737 descended at a near-vertical angle, nose down. It will likely be some time before investigators are able to issue any sort of conclusion regarding the cause of the accident.