China Southern Airlines Flight 3943 was a
China Southern Airlines
China Southern Airlines Company Limited is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and is the largest airline in China. Established on 1 July 1988 following the restructuring of the CAAC Airlines that acqu ...
flight from
the former Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport,
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
to
Guilin Qifengling Airport,
Guilin
Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
, China on 24 November 1992. It crashed on descent to Guilin Airport, killing all 141 people aboard.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident was a
Boeing 737-3Y0,
registration
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
B-2523, that was equipped with a twin
CFMI CFM56-3B-1 powerplant. With
serial number 24913, it had its maiden flight on 10 May 1991 and was delivered new to China Southern Airlines on 23 May the same year. The airframe was old at the time of the accident, and had logged 4,165 flight hours and 3,153 cycles.
Accident
Flight 3943 departed Guangzhou on a 55-minute flight to Guilin. During the descent towards Guilin, at an altitude of , the captain attempted to level off the plane by raising the nose. The plane's autothrottle was engaged for descent, but the crew did not notice that the number 2 power lever was at idle. This led to an asymmetrical power condition. The airplane rolled to the right, and the crew was unable to regain control. At 07:52, the plane crashed into a mountain in the sparsely populated
Guangxi region.
It was the deadliest accident involving a
Boeing 737-300
The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft.
Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...
at the time, as well as the deadliest on Chinese soil;
, it is still the second-deadliest accident in both of those categories, behind
Flash Airlines Flight 604
Flash Airlines Flight 604 was a charter flight provided by Egyptian private charter company Flash Airlines. On 3 January 2004, the Boeing 737-300 that was operating the route crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh ...
, and
China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, respectively. It is also the accident with the highest number of fatalities involving a China Southern Airlines aircraft.
Nationalities
There were 141 people on board, of whom 131 were passengers. Occupants of the aircraft were from the following countries or regions:
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References
External links
Accident information at airfleets.net
{{coord missing, Guangxi
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1992
Aviation accidents and incidents in China
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 Classic
3943
1992 disasters in China
History of Guangxi
November 1992 events in Asia