On March 21, 2022, the Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed in Wuzhou, Guangxi, resulting in the death of all 132 people on board. For two years, the investigation progress released by Chinese authorities has consistently failed to provide a clear conclusion on the cause of the crash. However, on April 29, 2026, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a download report on the flight data recorder (FDR) of the flight in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This data, containing key parameters from the final 90 seconds before the crash, not only provides more detailed technical sequences than the official report but also directly points to a conclusion that had been widely speculated by public opinion but had always lacked official confirmation: this tragedy was not due to mechanical failure, but was caused by human manipulation within the cockpit.
Key Evidence: Original Records Revealed by FOIA Request
For a long time, discussions about the Eastern Airlines MU5735 crash have been limited by a lack of transparency. The public could only find clues from the Civil Aviation Administration’s annual, brief ‘investigation progress reports.’ The report charts released by the NTSB (Figures 11, 12, 13) have filled this vacuum.
The report records the entire process of the aircraft’s sudden descent from cruising altitude to impact, covering altitude, speed, pitch angle, and the status of key mechanical switches. Because these data are directly extracted from the FDR backup, their objectivity and authority provide a core basis for external independent analysis of the cause of the air disaster.
Data Interpretation: Four Dimensions Excluding Mechanical Failure
According to the analysis of the leaked FDR parameters, the aircraft’s loss of control showed extremely obvious ‘active’ characteristics, which are completely different from typical mechanical failures or system crashes:
- Human Intervention in the Engine: Data shows that at the moment the aircraft began to dive, the two engine cutoff switches (Eng1/Eng2 Cutoff SW) switched from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’ almost simultaneously. In the Boeing 737-800 model, this synchronous switching is a typical preventive or malicious human operation, rather than a chain reaction of system failures.
- Deactivation of the Autopilot System: Synchronously with the engine shutdown, the autopilot (AP) alarm was triggered, and the flight control computer was instructed to shut down. This means that before entering the extreme attitude, the aircraft had switched from automatic navigation mode to full manual mode.
- Violent and Continuous Control Input: During the loss of control and descent, the control wheel recorded continuous and violent inputs. The ailerons remained active throughout, and the elevators showed a clear downward deflection in the final stages. These signs indicate that the aircraft was not in a ‘unattended’ free-fall state, but was continuously controlled from the cockpit.
- Abnormal Silence of the Rudder: It is worth noting that during the dive, the rudder was not used at all. This excludes the possibility of the pilot trying to correct the aircraft’s yaw or cope with extreme airflow, further corroborating the singularity of the control intention.
The Gap Between Official Narrative and Technical Truth
In previous reports, the Civil Aviation Administration of China emphasized ‘complete crew qualifications,’ ‘aircraft maintenance standards,’ and ‘no abnormalities in the flight path weather,’ but has consistently failed to directly address the abnormal flight parameters and possible changes inside the cockpit.
The outflow of NTSB data has actually broken this ‘selective silence.’ The control moment recorded by the FDR shows that someone was continuously and forcefully manipulating the aircraft to dive. This is highly consistent with the U.S. investigation’s view cited by The Wall Street Journal earlier – ‘someone in the cockpit entered instructions leading to the crash.’
The Significance of Recording the Truth: Why Does This Matter?
In air crash investigations, the disclosure of the truth is not only an explanation to the victims and their families, but also the basis for ensuring the safety of global civil aviation.
- Reflection on the System: If the air crash was indeed a deliberate human operation, are there systemic loopholes in the civil aviation system’s psychological health monitoring, dual-person duty system, and crisis prevention mechanisms?
- Defense of the Right to Know: The original technical data of public safety incidents should not become ‘sensitive information.’ Obtaining and disclosing data through FOIA demonstrates the role of cross-border information disclosure mechanisms in breaking local information blockades.
- Completion of Historical Archives: The ‘Freedom Archives’ records such data, aiming to prevent this major social event from being diluted into a set of cold statistics, ensuring that future researchers can restore history based on facts rather than rumors.
Written in Conclusion
The outflow of the Eastern Airlines MU5735’s FDR data is the most critical piece of the air crash truth puzzle. It proves with cold time-series parameters that: on that tragic afternoon, the aircraft did not betray humanity, but someone in the cockpit actively chose destruction. Before the official investigation report is formally concluded, the disclosure of these original data is not only a supplement to professional analysis, but also a strong advocacy for information transparency.
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