China Eastern Flight 5210
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China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210 (CES5210/MU5210), also known as the Baotou Air Disaster, was a
flight Flight or flying is the process by which an object moves through a space without contacting any planetary surface, either within an atmosphere (i.e. air flight or aviation) or through the vacuum of outer space (i.e. spaceflight). This can be a ...
from Baotou Erliban Airport in
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, China, to
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport is one of the two international airports of Shanghai and a significant airline hub of China. Hongqiao Airport mainly serves domestic and regional flights, although the airport also serves international fl ...
, with a planned stopover at
Beijing Capital International Airport Beijing Capital International Airport is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It is located northeast of Beijing's city center, in an exclave of Chaoyang District ...
. On 21 November 2004, just two minutes after takeoff, the Bombardier CRJ-200ER fell from the sky and crashed into a lake in Nanhai Park, next to the airport, killing all 53 people on board and two more on the ground. An investigation by the
Civil Aviation Administration of China The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible f ...
(CAAC) revealed that the plane had not been deiced by the ground crew while it was parked on the
tarmac Tarmac may refer to: Engineered surfaces * Tarmacadam, a mainly historical tar-based material for macadamising road surfaces, patented in 1902 * Asphalt concrete, a macadamising material using asphalt instead of tar which has largely superseded ta ...
. Ice accumulation on the wings caused the plane to lose its
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
, causing the crash. It is the deadliest
accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...
involving a CRJ-100/-200 series, and was the deadliest in China Eastern Airlines' history at that time until the crash of Flight 5735 on 21 March 2022, which killed 132 crew and passengers.


Accident

Flight 5210 was operated by a Bombardier CRJ-200ER, SN 7697, which was powered by two
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
CF34-3B1 engines, which was delivered in November 2002, two years prior to the crash. At the time of the accident, the plane was still painted with China Yunnan Airlines livery, despite the airline having merged with China Eastern Airlines in 2003. The plane took off at 08:21 local time, 15 minutes ahead of schedule, carrying 47 passengers and six crew members. 10 seconds after taking off, the airplane shook for several seconds and then fell to the ground. The plane skidded through a park and crashed into a house, a park ticketing station, and a port, setting fire to several moored yachts. It then plunged into an icy lake. All 53 people on board and two park employees on the ground were killed in the crash.


Search and rescue

Chinese leaders
Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...
,
Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy ...
and
Huang Ju Huang Ju (28 September 1938 – 2 June 2007) was a Chinese politician and a high-ranking leader in the Chinese Communist Party. He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision making body, between 2002 until his death i ...
, ordered an immediate rescue operation. More than 100 firefighters were dispatched to the crash site. Also sent to the disaster site were 250 police officers, 50 park staff, and 20 divers. Rescuers had to break through the ice to retrieve bodies. By the end of the day, crews had recovered 36 bodies from the frozen lake. According to a doctor who worked in a nearby hospital, rescuers had only recovered bodily organs and intestines of victims. Rescue efforts were hampered by the low temperatures. By the day after the crash, most of the plane had been recovered from the lake. A team of rescue experts from the Ministry of Communications' Maritime Bureau also arrived at the crash site on 22 November. On 24 November, investigators located the
cockpit voice recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(CVR) and the
flight data recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(FDR) by the radio pings that the devices emitted.


Passengers and crew

On 23 November, the flight's
passenger manifest A manifest, customs manifest or cargo document is a document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship, aircraft, or vehicle, for the use of customs and other officials. Where such a list is limited to identifying passengers, it is a pas ...
was released by China Eastern officials. Of the 47 passengers on board, 46 were
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
. Officials confirmed that only one foreigner was on board, from Indonesia. The flight crew members were identified as
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Wang Pin () (33), Vice Captain Yang Guang () (37), , and First Officer Yi Qinwei () (27),plus two
flight attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...
s and a security officer.


Investigation

Many witnesses stated that the plane shook for several seconds, and then exploded in midair. According to one witness, a blast occurred at the tail of the plane. Smoke began to pour from the plane before it crashed into the park, becoming a fireball, and then skidded across the park and into the lake. Others claimed that the plane exploded into "flaming fragments" in the air before it crashed. The crash occurred just three months after the bombing of a
Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (russian: Tyполев Ту-154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian ...
and a
Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain ot ...
over
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, which killed 90 people. At the time, investigators of the Russian bombings found traces of explosives aboard the two planes. Investigators at the crash of Flight 5120, however, stated that they did not find any evidence of terrorism, according to state-run news agency
Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
. The crash was also just one month after
Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 On October 14, 2004, Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 (ICAO: FLG3701, IATA: 9E3701, or Flagship 3701) crashed near Jefferson City, Missouri, while flying from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Flight 3 ...
, which also involved a CRJ200, prompting the
Civil Aviation Administration of China The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the Chinese civil aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents. As the aviation authority responsible f ...
to ground all CRJ200's for one month, until no technical faults with the aircraft were determined. Weather at the time of the crash was good, although the temperature was below . A resulting hypothesis that ice particles in the fuel caused the disaster was later disproven. Further investigation revealed that the accident aircraft had been parked overnight at
Baotou Airport Baotou Donghe Airport is an airport serving the city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia, China. Eurasia Aviation Corporation, a joint venture between Ministry of Transportation and Communications of China and Lufthansa, built the airport in 1934. T ...
in cold weather, causing a layer of frost to form on its exterior. The aircraft was also not deiced prior to the flight. During takeoff, the frost contamination severely degraded
aerodynamic Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
performance, and as the jet rotated, it entered a stall from which the flight crew was unable to recover.


Aftermath

In 2006, 12 China Eastern Airlines employees were found to be responsible for the accident and received administrative punishment. China Eastern no longer operates the route of the accident. All flights between Baotou and Shanghai are now operated by its subsidiary
Shanghai Airlines Shanghai Airlines () is an airline headquartered in Shanghai. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, but its operations remain separate post-merger, retaining its distinct brand and livery. Shanghai Airlines operates domestic ...
as Flights 9438 and 9136 (to Pudong). Flight number 5210 was reassigned to a Shantou-Shanghai flight. Flight 5210 was the deadliest plane crash in the airline's history until the crash of Flight 5735 in 2022 which killed 132.


References


External links


Topic on "11.21 Air Disaster"
from
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
(in simplified Chinese)] *
Accident aircraft photos from airliners.net
{{China Eastern Airlines Airliner accidents and incidents caused by ice Aviation accidents and incidents in 2004 History of Inner Mongolia Aviation accidents and incidents in China 5210 2004 disasters in China Accidents and incidents involving the Bombardier CRJ200 November 2004 events in China