A China Eastern Airlines Boeing jet with 132 people aboard crashed in southern China on Monday, Chinese aviation authorities said.
The B737-800, bound for the southeastern city of Guangzhou from Kunming in Yunnan Province, was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members when it lost contact and crashed in Wuzhou, a city in the Guangxi region, according to the authorities.
President Xi Jinping called for the immediate activation of a plane crash emergency mechanism, search and rescue efforts and the proper handling of the crash's aftermath, said the Global Times, a tabloid of the ruling Communist Party.
The government will assign officials to deal with the accident as a priority, identify the cause as soon as possible and strengthen the investigation of safety hazards in civil aviation to ensure people's lives in the future, the newspaper added.
Chinese official media said Flight MU5735 crashed shortly after 2:30 p.m. Beijing time and caused a fire in the mountains. Rescue workers have reached the site of the crash, they said.
Footage posted on Chinese social media showed what appeared to be a piece of wreckage as well as white smoke rising from the mountains.
The Wuzhou fire brigade has sent 117 firefighters with 23 fire engines to the site. Over 500 firefighters from other parts of Guangxi have been dispatched to join the rescue efforts, Xinhua quoted the regional fire department as saying.
In China, a passenger plane with 96 people aboard failed a landing and burst into flames in the northeastern city of Yichun in August 2010, killing 44 people.
The latest crash came after China's Civil Aviation Administration said late last month that the country's airlines had recorded more than 100 million continuous hours of safe flight as of Feb. 19.
China Eastern Airlines Co., one of China's three major air carriers and headquartered in Shanghai, operates around 750 jetliners from both Boeing Co. and Airbus SE under the SkyTeam alliance.
The top page of the airline's website was in black and white on Monday evening.
