Four Years On, U.S. Investigators Say China Eastern Crash Was Deliberate: Fuel Cut Off Mid-Flight

In March 2022, a Boeing 737-800 plunged from about 9 kilometers up into a mountainside in southern China, killing all 132 people on board. Now, the National Transportation Safety Board of the U.S. (NTSB) says it wasn’t a technical failure. Black box data shows someone in the cockpit manually and intentionally switched both engines’ fuel levers to cutoff while the jet was at cruising altitude, after a physical struggle between the two pilots.

“While cruising at 29,000 feet, the fuel switches were moved from ‘run’ to ‘cutoff,’ prompting an immediate dive,” the American report states. Experts note that on a Boeing 737 this maneuver requires a deliberate physical action—pulling the switch before moving it—making an accidental slip highly unlikely.

Even as U.S. investigators present unequivocal data, China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) has continued to try to bury the incident. Although authorities in China apparently knew from the very start about the deliberate cockpit action, they have refused to give answers to victims’ families or the global aviation community.

Last summer, officials in China even said that “publishing the causes of the crash could endanger national security and social stability.” As of 2024, China’s most recent official update claimed there were no issues with the aircraft, the crew, or the weather—a position in direct conflict with the NTSB’s findings.

This isn’t the first time a tragedy like this has claimed hundreds of lives after an intentional act by pilots. In 2025, the engines of an Air India jet were manually shut down immediately after takeoff, killing 260 people. And in 2014, a Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people aboard went down in the Indian Ocean after six hours off its planned route. Its wreckage has never been found. The leading theory is that the crash resulted from deliberate action by the pilot.