No news of survivors in China's plane crash; rescue efforts continue
Beijing(PTI): No survivors have so far been found as the search continued on Tuesday of the scattered wreckage of the China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in a mountainous area in the country's southern region with 132 people on board on Monday.
There is no official announcement here yet on the fate of the 123 passengers and nine crew members as hopes receded about finding any survivors, considering that the plane crashed and exploded in a mountainous area.
There is no news of the location of black box, which may provide information about what caused the crash.
The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming and was bound for Guangzhou, crashed into a mountainous area near Molang village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou at 2:38 pm, causing a mountain fire, according to the regional emergency management department.
No survivors have so far been found, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.
Boeing said it is cooperating with China Eastern Airlines to probe the crash.
Hundreds of rescuers scurried the mountainous forest area throughout the night to find any survivors and to collect the debris.
The crash shattered China's airlines record of over 100 million continuous hours of safe flight as of February 19.
The last domestic fatal air accident was in 2010, when an Embraer passenger plane crashed in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, killing 42 people.
Boeing China on Tuesday said it is in contact with the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, adding that its technical experts are ready to aid the Civil Aviation Administration of China in conducting the investigation into the incident.
Eye witnesses said the plane exploded after the crash.
"I heard the roar of a plane on the other side of the hill. A second later, there was an explosion," a worker near the crash site told the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Chen Weihao, a villager, was working on a farm when he saw the plane nosedived.
"The plane looked to be in one piece when it nosedived. Within seconds, it crashed," Chen said, adding that the crash site was a gap in a mountain where no one lives.
Villager Shi Fuxiong said he saw a large pit at the crash site and surrounding trees within dozens of metres had been levelled. "There were many pieces of small debris of the plane and baggage, but no large pieces of wreckage," he said.
In his instructions issued soon after the incident, President Xi Jinping said he was shocked to learn about the crash involving China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou.
He ordered the immediate launch of emergency response, all-out search and rescue efforts and proper settlement of the aftermath.
Vice Premier Liu He and State Councilor Wang Yong led officials to guide the rescue work, proper settlement of the aftermath and investigation into the crash.
The fire has been extinguished and the rescue operation is underway, said Chen Jie, an official from the regional emergency management department.
Over a thousand firefighters have been sent to the area to carry out the rescue operation.
"There is some plane wreckage in a gap in the mountain," a rescue worker at the crash site told Xinhua. "There are pieces of the wings, one of them about 2 or 3 metres. There is other debris, with some probably being pieces of clothing," the rescue worker said.
China Eastern Airlines said it has initiated an emergency response mechanism under which it established nine special working groups for aircraft disposal, accident investigation, family assistance, logistics support, legal support, public relations, security, financial insurance, and cargo disposal.
The airline said the cause of the accident will be fully investigated.
China Eastern Airlines -- one of China's three major air carriers -- has grounded its all Boeing 737-800 after the crash on Monday, company officials said.
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Cong insulted Prez Murmu after Ram temple visit, will get fewer seats than age of its ‘shehzada’: PM
Chatra (Jharkhand), May 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday flayed the opposition INDIA bloc for "insulting" President Droupadi Murmu after her visit to Ayodhya’s Ram temple, and asserted that the Congress will get fewer seats than the age of its ‘shehzada’.
Addressing a poll rally at Chatra, Modi also said leaders of the alliance are planning to merge small parties post the Lok Sabha polls to attain opposition status.
"Congress will get fewer seats than the age of its 'shehzada'," the PM said, in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi, and added that the bloc “has already accepted defeat”.
"A statement by a big INDIA alliance leader that all small parties should merge with Congress after the elections shows their desperation," he said.
Modi also asserted that NDA governments will be formed in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh where simultaneous assembly polls were underway, and asserted that the opposition will not get even 50 seats in LS polls.
“The mentality of the Congress is of the 18th century... after the President paid obeisance at the Ram temple, they talked about cleaning the temple... they insulted the President,” Modi said.
“Tribals converted Ayodhya's Prince Ram into ‘Maryada Purushottam’ Ram during the 14-year ‘vanvas’ (exile); We worship tribals for this, but the JMM-Congress are not able to digest this respect," he said.
The PM said people’s votes gave him an opportunity to serve the nation, and made a tribal woman president of the country. “Your one vote will stop anti-national forces," he asserted.
Modi also alleged that the INDIA bloc has plans to “hand over the country's assets to Muslims”, and the OBC/SC/ST reservations to the coalition’s "vote bank".
He said infiltration was on the rise in Jharkhand and that the infiltrators were grabbing the land of dalits and adivasis. "Your vote will strengthen Modi's hand to wipe out such forces."
Attacking the JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand, the PM said: "We need to save our country from the JMM and Congress. You have seen how mounds of cash were recovered from the premises of a domestic help of a minister’s personal secretary. You can imagine how corrupt these leaders are.”
"Send these shameless leaders who looted Jharkhand to jail. I assure you that Modi can take action against them," he said.
The PM said he was born in a poor family and did not want any poor child to sleep empty stomach, which is why he “ensured ration to 80 crore people”.
He accused the Jharkhand government of preventing central ration supply from reaching the poor, and said it “indulged in corruption” in schemes like the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’.
“The only industry set up by the state government was of opium trade, as it wanted to destroy future generations for appeasement policies,” alleged Modi.
Criticising the JMM for "not fulfilling its 5-lakh jobs" promise, he said the regional party and Congress did not want the progress of tribal and poor children, but "Modi wants to make your children doctors and engineers”.
