On March 21st, 2022, China Eastern Airlines announced that it would ground all its Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the fatal crash that caused 132 fatalities. The Shanghai-headquartered airline has now started redeploying the model across its services nearly a month later.

During that fateful day, the Boeing 737-89P crashed into terrain in Wuzhou, China while flying between Kunming and Guangzhou, leaving no survivors. The aircraft was conducting Flight 5735 and held registration B-1791. Following the crash, the airline took the decision to ground its 737-800s.

Back in action

According to ch-aviation, China Eastern holds a total of 106 units of the 737-800 variant. The carrier is now feeling confident to reenter it into service. According to Reuters, the carrier shared that it conducted systematic tests, structural checkups, and "verified airworthiness data for each of the aircraft, and that test flights would be carried out on all planes before they resumed commercial services.” Nonetheless, registrations with numbers close to the unit that crashed on March 21st are still undergoing checks and evaluation.

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The scene following the March crash. Photo: Getty Images

Regardless, flights for the variant are already underway. According to FlightRadar24.com, Flight MU5843 left Kunming today at 10:02 with a 737-800 in the form of registration B-207L. The aircraft then landed in Chengdu at 11:03. This route had been conducted by 737-700s in previous days, a model that China Eastern holds 39 units of.

On April 16th, B-207L had performed a test flight in Kunming. The plane is scheduled to continue flying between Kunming and Chengdu over the next few days.

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Tragic event

Altogether, the Flight MU5735 crash is China’s third-deadliest air disaster in history. Both of the flight's black boxes have since been recovered, and China announced that it would share a preliminary report with ICAO within 30 days of the incident.

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The unit involved in the accident pictured in 2015. Photo: Shadman Samee via Wikimedia Commons

On March 31st, China's leadership shared that the final report will be completed and made public after the investigation is concluded. It emphasized that investigators have been working intently to decode the black box data. The United States' NTSB has even been collaborating with China's CAAC to help determine the cause. Under an ICAO agreement, the United States is allowed to serve as a representative to the crash investigation due to the fact that the aircraft was manufactured in the US.

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Global affair

The NTSB departed for China on April 1st. The group stated that “Investigators will limit interactions with those outside of investigation similar to safety protocols at Beijing Olympics, which will allow them to begin work immediately without a quarantine.”

China Eastern's decision to reintroduce the Boeing 737-800 shows that the carrier has faith in the model following the crash. The aviation industry will undoubtedly be keeping a close eye on official updates from China Eastern and Chinese authorities regarding investigations in the coming days.

What are your thoughts about China Eastern reintroducing the Boeing 737-800 after its grounding? What do you make of the overall situation? Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Source: Reuters