European Commission backs Spain’s policy shift on Western Sahara, Morocco partnership

The new development vindicates Rabat’s approach while likely to place Algiers in an even tougher predicament.

Tuesday 22/03/2022

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) poses with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L) prior to a meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels, March 21, 2022. (AFP)

The European Commission’s announced support for Spain's policy shift on the Sahara issue, which backs Morocco’s ​​expanded autonomy initiative, has come to further illustrate the gains achieved by Rabat in defending its stand on the country’s territorial integrity, analysts say

At the same time, the new development has compounded the setbacks suffered by Algeria’s diplomacy, which had been trying for years, to no avail, to prop up the Polisario Front’s Saharan claims.

“The European Union welcomes any positive development … between its member states and Morocco in their bilateral relations, which can only be beneficial for the implementation of the Euro-Moroccan partnership,” said Monday Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Political analysts in Morocco consider Europe is clearly siding with Morocco through its support for Spain and that Massrali’s statements show the importance that the Europeans attach to their partnership with Morocco.

No mention was made by the EU of Algeria, despite the European Union’s awareness of the sensitivity of the Sahara issue for Morocco’s neighbour.

Madrid had told Rabat on Friday that it regarded its 2007 autonomy proposal for the Western Sahara as “serious, credible and realistic”.

Observers pointed out that Spain's unambiguous support for Morocco's expanded autonomy approach, has paved the way for the European Commission to support the Moroccan proposal. There were signs of a developing common policy in recent months within the European body with the change in the German position and then that of France.

Paris on Monday renewed its support for the autonomy plan presented by Morocco as “a basis for serious and credible discussion” towards settling the Sahara dispute.

Moroccan official news agency MAP quoted a spokeswoman for the French ministry of foreign affairs as saying that France's position on the Sahara issue was  "consistently in favour of a just and lasting political solution that is acceptable to the parties, in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions."

From this perspective, an international consensus seems to be emerging in favour of the Moroccan autonomy plan as a basis for any serious and credible settlement.

Hichem Motadid, a Moroccan expert in international and strategic relations, told The Arab Weekly that “the EU’s position on the Sahara consolidates the international momentum in support of the Moroccan autonomy initiative,” as it reflects a new approach by the European Union “towards ending this artificial conflict”.

Motadid added that the European Union's backing for the Moroccan proposal vindicates Rabat’s approach to conflict settlement. He emphasised that “the European Union's support for the continuation of the political process led by the secretary-general of the United Nations is a responsible commitment” towards backing Morocco and “the respect for its sovereignty over its southern provinces and to expediting political efforts towards ending this old issue.”

The European step is expected to reverberate  strongly in Algeria which has expressed “surprise” at Madrid’s policy shift.  The wider backing for Morocco’s autonomy plan is likely to place Algiers in an even tougher predicament.

Algeria recalled its ambassador in Madrid for consultations. A foreign ministry statement stated that "Algeria was deeply surprised by the recent statements of its Spanish counterpart."

Observers believe the Algerian authorities have a quite limited margin for manoeuvre. They cannot afford a confrontation with the European Union especially considering their frayed relations with France, their tensions with Morocco and their diminishing regional influence. This has been reflected by the difficulties Algeria has encountered trying to host an Arab summit and the clear support for Morocco’s positions on the Sahara issue given by the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Experts rule out the possibility for Algeria to use the natural gas lever against Spain or the rest of Europe. Facing itself a severe economic crisis at home, Algeria badly needs the gas revenues. Waving the gas card would be an unwelcome move amid the Ukraine war crisis.

A few weeks ago, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune sent a message of reassurance to the country’s European partners, in which he pledged his country's commitment to meeting their energy needs.

 

Written ByMohamed Alaoui

Mohamed Mamouni al-Alaoui is a Moroccan journalist.

The Banning of Russian Shipping Reignites the Debate on the Genuine Link and Ship Nationality


22.03.22 | 

Banning Russian Ships from Ports

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has drawn all eyes to the hostilities raging on land. However, the past few weeks have witnessed some critical developments out at sea. Over the course of the conflict, several issues like the law of blockades, high seas freedoms and blue humanitarian corridors have cropped up. However, a crucial development which has almost sailed under the radar, has been the United Kingdom and Canada’s decisions to block all Russian-linked ships from their ports. Notably, similar deliberations are also currently ongoing in the European Union and the United States of America.

The United Kingdom has given effect to this ban via the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2022, and Canada through an amendment to the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations (SOR/2022-47). What is common to both these measures, is that the banned ships are not simply those ships which are registered in Russia. These measures go beyond banning ships which fly the Russian flag. Inter alia, they ban ships which are “owned, controlled, chartered or operated by persons connected with Russia.” By acting in this fashion, the UK and Canada have signalled their willingness to pierce the veil of ship registration, so as to determine whether or not a ship actually bears a genuine link with the state whose flag it flies.

These bans are not targeted at particular individuals or companies. These are broad and general restrictions on shipping, which are being put into place not with the ultimate aim of punishing the ship owners themselves, but rather their parent state. In practice, this has generated significant confusion. Of the 6,000 Russian-affiliated vessels, some 400 trade internationally. However, 60% of these do not sail under the Russian flag. Consequently, these general bans have put port operators between a rock and a hard place. Port operators are concerned about violating the ban by granting entry to a banned ship or mistakenly denying entry to a legitimate vessel and thus becoming embroiled in a legal dispute.

A determination of why this measure has created such confusion necessitates a quick dive into the law governing ship nationality. These developments have also breathed life into a crucial debate on whether there exists any distinction between the peacetime law of the seas and the law of naval warfare when it comes to determining a ship’s nationality.

Determining Nationality Under Peacetime Law

Following the explosion of the phenomenon of flags of convenience and open registries in the mid-20th century, the international community attempted to intercede with the 1958 Geneva convention on the high seas (GCHS) and the 1982 law of the seas convention (LOSC). Article 5 of the GCHS and Article 91of the LOSC envisaged that a ship would possess the nationality of the state whose flag it was ‘entitled to fly’. The condition for this entitlement was linked to the existence of a genuine link. The mere act of registration could not suffice for there to be a grant of nationality. The 1986 United Nations convention on conditions for registration of ships (UNCCRS) sought to further develop these provisions. The UNCCRS would have allowed a state to insist that it would allow registration and the right to fly its flag, only to those ships that were manned or owned by some proportion of its own nationals. Alternately, a state may require that the ship owning company to be established or have its principal place of business within its own territory. The idea behind these requirements was to ensure that a state could effectively exercise jurisdiction and control over a ship.

While the UNCCRS never entered into force, this fact by itself does not rob the GCHS or the LOSC of legal effect. It is these very provisions which constitute the legal basis for Canadian and UK determinations of which ships have or do not have a genuine link with Russia. Many consider the requirement for a genuine link to represent little more than dead letters of the law. Such views have gained some traction owing to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) willingness to acquiesce to this state of affairs as well.

The central interpretative controversy when considering the concept of a genuine link is whether the term genuine link is concerned merely with a flag state’s duty to effectively exercise jurisdiction and control in administrative, technical and social matters or whether it is a condition sine qua non for there to be a grant of nationality to a ship. Unfortunately in both the M/V “SAIGA” (No. 2) and the M/V “Virginia G” cases, the ITLOS has incorrectly held the former to be the correct meaning of the genuine link. Judge Quintana foresaw this dangerous path in his dissent in the IMCO case before the ICJ where he had observed that,

“The flag-that supreme emblem of sovereignty which international law authorizes ships to fly-must represent a country’s degree of economic independence, not the interests of third parties or companies.”

Indeed, the conferral of nationality and registration which follows the conferral of nationality, does not simply serve private functions. First and foremost, it serves public functions, such as subjecting a ship to state jurisdiction for regulatory purposes, allowing ships to engage in maritime activities in territorial waters and crucially as in the current case, determining rights relating to naval and political protection and utilization of the ship during war. These public functions are now amply at display with everyday Russian shipping finding its freedom of movement circumscribed owing public considerations wholly outside the scope of their day to day private functioning.

Determining Nationality Under the Law of Naval Warfare

While the requirement for a genuine link has a very tumultuous history in the peacetime law of the seas, this has not been the case with the law of naval warfare. States have always maintained that a different set of rules apply during a war. The San Remo Manual is an authoritative restatement of the law of naval warfare. It makes clear that during an armed conflict, enemy character can be determined not just by registration, but by ownership, charter or other criteria as well. Crucially however, this provision is pertinent only in between belligerents in an armed conflict.

Canada and the UK are not belligerents in the ongoing conflict. Nor are they acting pursuant to the U.N.S.C’s mandate. Consequently, the legal grounding for their actions indisputably lies in the peacetime law of the seas and not the law of naval warfare. And in adopting measures targeting shipping on the basis of their affiliation to or links with a state and its nationals, they have clearly indicated that the flag flown by a vessel may be ignored if it in fact lacks a genuine link with the flag state.

This willingness to pierce the veil of ship registration is very significant since it represents a step in the direction of interpreting nationality requirements in a similar fashion under both the peacetime law of the sea and the law of naval warfare. Inter alia, this also has wide ranging implications for the entire maritime industry, which has grown accustomed to functioning with open registries and flags of convenience as an unshakable article of faith. Moreover, these decisions have hardly drawn any controversy or opposition from the community of states. Tentatively, one might conclude that this indicates a widely shared agreement among states on this point of law. Any forthcoming action by the EU and the United States of America on the limitation of Russian shipping should certainly unearth even more state practice that would help confirm or reject the same.

[Himanil Raina is a PhD candidate and a Teaching Assistant at the Graduate Institute, Geneva working on ‘National Security and International Law’ under Professor Andrew Clapham. He graduated from the NALSAR University of Law, India and has been a Legal Assistant at the ILC and the Permanent Mission of India to the UN and the WTO.]

Russian soldier surrendered his tank to Ukrainian army
By Dylan Malyasov

Mar 22, 2022

One operational main battle tank operated by Kremlin’s troops is

now in the control of Ukrainian army after Russian soldier surrendered his combat vehicle.

Russian soldier surrendered his tank voluntarily to Ukraine’s forces, which saved his life, according to advisor at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Victor Andrusiv.

“Misha [Russian soldier] received a very comfortable environment. He will also receive $10,000 after the war is over and possibly apply for citizenship,” said Andrusiv.

He also added that the Russian soldier decided to surrender the tank after one of the crew remained, and he could not return home, because his commander said, that he will shoot him and blame it on combat losses.

In addition, Ukroboronprom, an Ukraine’s central state arms company, has promised to pay up to $1 million in U.S. dollars for fighter jets and $500,000 for helicopters.

Ukroboronprom’s CEO Yuri Gusev made the offer on Facebook, asking that users share the post far and wide. The CEO says it will pay $1 million for “every combat-capable stolen or trophy” aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, and $500,000 for “every combat helicopter.”

Furthermore, TV presenter Maria Yefrosinina, who is an ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, has announced an offer to Russian soldiers from the Ukraine Government, funded by the global IT community.

“The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the global IT community offer the Russian military [the opportunity] to surrender, get amnesty and earn money,” Yefrosinina wrote. “IT people from all over the world have collected millions of dollars and will continue to collect to pay the Russian military 5 million rubles in cryptocurrency to an account, or in cash.”

Under the terms of the offer, any Russian soldier who wishes may accept legal protection by Ukraine and start over comfortably.

UPDATED

ANOTHER AIRPLANE CRASH ANOMALY!

IT WENT STRAIGHT DOWN FROM 30,000 FT. LIKE MH370

WHERE ARE THE BODIES?

 Rescuers have not yet been able to find any dead or survivors of the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 crash. The plane crashed yesterday in the mountains of Teng County, Wuzhou City in southern China.

“To date, according to rescuers, the wreckage of the crashed aircraft has been found at the scene, but no missing persons have yet been found”, - China Central Television said in a report dated 4:50 Moscow time.

The search is currently ongoing. They are complicated by the difficulties associated with the landscape - the mountainous terrain greatly complicates the work of rescuers.

It's worth reminding that the plane was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou. A fire broke out at the crash site. Rescuers went to the crash site.

'Catastrophic incident on board' Chinese plane sparked death plunge, expert says

22 March 2022, 10:51

Footage appeared to show the moment a passenger plane crashed into a mountain in China. Picture: Social media/Alamy

By Emma Soteriou

The plane crash in China that claimed 132 lives could have been caused by a "catastrophic incident" on board the flight, an expert analyst has told LBC.

Nobody survived the devastating crash in which the passenger plane plunged thousands of feet from the sky in an almost vertical freefall.

Speaking to LBC, expert Sally Gethin explained how the Boeing 737 suddenly dropped from the sky after an apparent attempt to 'level off' its flightpath, and detailed what could have be the reason behind the disaster.

"It's really hard to ascertain at this point in time whether the aircraft was entirely intact when it dropped so suddenly," she said.

"I would tend to think that there had already been a catastrophic incident on board for it to be able to drop so dramatically in that way.

"But at the same time, it could also be a problem that the pilot was struggling with and finally lost control."

Despite speculation, Ms Gethin said the real reason behind the crash would hopefully be uncovered when the two black boxes - the data recorder and the voice recorder - are uncovered from the wreckage.

"[It] will be revealed in their communications with the radar control, with their traffic management side, and that will be revealed in the voice recorder," she said.

Read more: Horrifying moment plane with 132 passengers 'nosedives' into Chinese mountain

Read more: No survivors found after plane nosedives into mountainside in China

When asked about unverified footage showing a plane nosediving, she explained: "[The plane] was at nearly 30,000 feet - which is cruising altitude - and from the ground that would look like a dot up in the sky.

"It fell from that height – nearly 30,000 feet – suddenly perpendicular.

"It maintained some stability, it paused and then several seconds later it then dropped again suddenly.

"That footage captures it in that second phase, where it drops completely vertically to the ground."

She went on to say: "The impact of the crash ruled out survivors because there was no chance to land it in a gradual way."

China Searches for Victims, Flight Recorders After First Plane Crash in 12 years

Chinese media carried brief highway video images from a vehicle's dashboard camera that appeared to show a jet diving to the ground at an angle of about 35 degrees from the vertical.

Paramilitary police officers work at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 21, 2022. 

Photo: China Daily via Reuters

Wuzhou: Rescuers scoured heavily forested mountain slopes in southern China on Tuesday looking for victims and flight recorders from a China Eastern Airlines passenger jet that crashed a day earlier with 132 people on board.

“Parts of the Boeing 737-800 were strewn among trees charred by fire after China’s first crash of a commercial jetliner since 2010. Burnt remains of identity cards and wallets were also seen,” state media said.

Flight MU5735 was travelling to the port city of Guangzhou from Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan, when it suddenly plunged from cruising altitude and crashed in the mountains of Guangxi less than an hour before it was due to land.

Chinese media carried brief highway video images from a vehicle’s dashboard camera that appeared to show a jet diving to the ground at an angle of about 35 degrees from the vertical. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

Si, 64, a villager near the crash site who declined to give his first name, told Reuters he heard a “bang, bang” at the time of the crash.

“It was like thunder,” he said.

Plane debris is seen at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 21, 2022.

 Photo: China Daily via Reuters

State media, which described the situation as “grim”, have said the possibility of the deaths of all on board could not be ruled out.

The crash site was hemmed in by mountains on three sides, state media said, with just one tiny path providing access. Rain was forecast in the area this week. Excavators were clearing a path to the site on Tuesday, images on state television showed.

Earlier, video images from the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, showed search and rescue workers and paramilitary forces scaling tree-covered hillocks and placing markers wherever debris was found.

Police set up a checkpoint at Lu village, on the approach to the site, and barred journalists from entering.

Several people gathered near the crash site on Tuesday for a small Buddhist ceremony.

Abrupt Descent

An investigation team sent by the State Council, or cabinet, will give details of the search and rescue effort and the hunt for the black boxes at a news conference on Tuesday evening, state television said.

The last commercial jetliner to crash in China was in 2010, when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines went down, killing 44 of the 96 aboard.

Militia members speak with a manager at the entrance of Lu village near the site where the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed, March 22, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Highlighting the top-level concern, Vice Premier Liu He went to Guangxi on Monday night to oversee search and rescue operations.

The disaster comes as planemaker Boeing seeks to rebound from several crises, notably the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on air travel and safety concerns over its 737 MAX model following two deadly crashes.

Once it is found, the cockpit voice recorder could yield clues to what went wrong with Monday’s flight.

“Accidents that start at cruise altitude are usually caused by weather, deliberate sabotage, or pilot error,” Dan Elwell, a former head of US regulator the Federal Aviation Administration, told Reuters.

Elwell, who led the FAA during the 737-MAX crisis, said mechanical failures in modern commercial jets were rare at cruise altitude.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Monday appointed an investigator, as the Boeing aircraft was produced in the United States, but it was unclear if the investigator would travel to China.

On Monday, China Eastern and two subsidiaries grounded its fleet of 737-800 planes. The group has 225 of the aircraft, data from British aviation consultancy IBA shows.

As of Tuesday, other Chinese airlines had yet to cancel any flights that use 737-800 aircraft, according to data from Chinese aviation data provider Flight Master.

Among the passengers on flight MU5735 was the chief financial officer of Dinglong Culture, a Guangzhou-headquartered firm whose businesses range from entertainment to titanium mining.

A provincial daily cited a woman as saying six of her family members and friends were on the flight to Guangzhou, where they had been due to attend a funeral.

Onshore-listed shares of China Eastern slumped over 6.5% on Tuesday, while those trading in Hong Kong fell nearly 6%.

China Eastern crash: ‘Foul play at the top of the list’ says air crash investigator

By Eryk Bagshaw
Updated March 22, 2022 

Singapore: A leading air crash investigator says foul play should be at the top of the list for authorities investigating the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, after the flight’s almost vertical descent matched the fate of two previous disasters.

Michael Daniel, who worked on investigations into Egypt Air flight 990 and SilkAir flight 185, which were both deliberately crashed by the pilot - according to the US National Transportation Safety Board - also had “very quick, very sudden and straight” dives straight into the ground.

Debris seen at the crash site in Guangxi. CREDIT:AP

“I think that’d be one of the first things I would look at is foul play,” said Daniel.

The US Federal Aviation Administration investigator said the plane had power as it was descending. “So, that kind of rules out a catastrophic type of failure,” he said.

“Even with catastrophic failures, a lot of times you’ll see some opportunity for declaring an emergency, or mayday or, or something along those lines. There’s nothing that’s been released here that indicates any kind of distress call. ”

Daniel, the senior policy manager at consultancy firm Aviation Insight, said if the horizontal stabiliser, which controls the vertical balance of the aircraft, was stuck, you would still likely see some wavering on the plane.

But MU5735 fell almost 8000 metres in two minutes, FlightRadar 24 data shows, plunging at such a speed that parts of the plane fell off as it hurtled towards the mountains that surround Wuzhou in southeastern China. Video on social media sites from a mining CCTV camera and a car dashcam appeared to show the plane plunging nose-first from the sky into the ground before sending up a plume of smoke that could be seen up to five kilometres away.

There were 132 people on board. Chinese authorities have not reported any survivors almost 24 hours after the flight took off from Kunming to Guangzhou. Emergency workers have recovered burnt ID documents and wallets from the site.
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Families of the passengers and crew have descended on Kunming and Guangzhou airports hoping for good news but so far have only received statements from the Civil Aviation Administration of China that a rescue effort was ongoing.

A worker from the China Eastern holds a signboard waiting to lead relatives of the victims aboard China Eastern’s flight MU5735 to a cordoned off area, in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou.

CREDIT:CHINATOPIX/AP

Other air crash investigators and aviation safety analysts have been puzzled by the flights’ trajectory while warning it was too early to say what the cause of the accident was. The Boeing 737-800 has a good safety record.

“It’s an odd profile,” John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and former 737 pilot told Bloomberg. “It’s hard to get the airplane to do this.”

The former director of the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, Jean-Paul Troadec, told Agence France-Presse that the flight data was “very unusual,” but added that it was “far too early” to draw conclusions.

The passengers on board the flight were cruising at an altitude of 8840 metres for one hour and ten minutes before the sudden dive, 160 kilometres from their destination.

“I think there’s a good chance that there were people that were still alive prior to impact,” said Daniel.

The g-force of the drop may have knocked some passengers and crew out. “This thing fell so quickly, so steeply, I don’t see how anybody would have had any opportunity to don emergency masks,” he said.



Play video
Plane with 132 people on board crashes in rural China

Play video

China faces its worst air disaster in three decades after a plane carrying 132 people plunged into mountains in the country’s south-east.

The task for investigators now is to reach the crash site. There is only one path into the dense mountain terrain, where the impact of the crash has created a crater that may make it hard to retrieve the black box, which houses critical data of the moments leading up to the crash.

“Access to the remote area will be a challenge, recovery will be a challenge, transparency perhaps could be a challenge,” said Daniel.

“You’ll have a team that will look at the human factors part of the investigation. They’ll do a look back on the flight crew back even several days to see what the behaviour was, where they were, what they were doing, what their attitude was.”

RELATED ARTICLE
Tragedy
Rescuers comb forest for survivors from flight MU5735

The investigation is being led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The US Federal Aviation Authority and Boeing said on Tuesday they were prepared “to assist in investigation efforts”.

Chinese Air Travel Faces Mass Cancellations After Plane Crash

Bloomberg News, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- About 74% of the 11,800 flights scheduled in China on Tuesday have been canceled, including the majority due between Beijing and Shanghai, typically one of the world’s busiest domestic routes, according to VariFlight. 

Chinese air travel had already been hit by Covid-related restrictions, which led to a high level of cancellations, but Tuesday’s rate was still the highest this year and double the number at the start of the month, data from the Chinese aviation data company show. 

The cancellations come after a Boeing Co. 737-800 NG operated by China Eastern Airlines Corp. nosedived out of the sky and crashed in Guangxi province on Monday afternoon. There were 132 people on board and no survivors have been found. It was the first fatal air crash in China since 2010. 

Of the 35 flights from Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport to Beijing listed for Tuesday, two operated in the morning and three more were due to fly. All others were scrapped. Only five of the 34 flights from Beijing to Shanghai’s domestic hub were scheduled to operate.

China Eastern shares slid as much as 7.3% in Hong Kong following a 6.5% loss on Monday. They also dropped as much as 9.3% in Shanghai trading Tuesday morning, the worst performers on a Bloomberg gauge of Asia-Pacific airline stocks. Boeing fell 3.6% in New York on Monday. 

Details of crashed Boeing 737-800 and China Eastern Airlines

2022/3/21 17:17 (GMT)
© Reuters


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here are some facts about the Boeing 737-800 jet and China Eastern Airlines, involved in a crash on a domestic flight on Monday with 132 people on board.

BOEING 737-800

The Boeing 737-800 is part of the 737 family, the world's most-flown commercial aircraft series. It was developed in the 1960s to serve short- or medium-length routes.

The 737-800 is part of the 737 NG or Next-Generation family - with more than 7,000 delivered since 1993 - and it has a strong safety record after nearly three decades of flights. The 162- to 189-seat 737-800 was launched on Sept. 5, 1994. The NG is the predecessor to the 737 MAX.

The MAX was grounded worldwide for 20 months after two fatal crashes killed 346. It remains grounded in China.

The jet involved in the China Eastern accident, en route from the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, was six years old, according to Flightradar24.

In the United States, American Airlines has the most 737-800s in operation with 265 followed by Southwest Airlines with 205 and United Airlines with 136, according to Cirium data.

The last fatal 737-800 crash occurred in August 2020 when an Air India Express plane overshot the table-top runway and crashed while landing at Calicut International Airport in the southern state of Kerala in heavy rain, killing 21. A government report cited pilot error as the probable cause.

CHINA

China's airline safety record has been among the best in the world for a decade but is less transparent than in countries like the United States and Australia where regulators release detailed reports on non-fatal incidents.

According to Aviation Safety Network, China's last fatal jet accident was in 2010, when 44 of 96 people on board were killed when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on approach to Yichun airport.

In 1994, a China Northwest Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashed en route from Xian to Guangzhou, killing all 160 on board in China's worst-ever air disaster, according to Aviation Safety Network.

Monday's disaster was the first fatal crash for China Eastern since 2004, when a plane crashed shortly after it took off from an airport in north China, killing 55, according to ASN.

Shanghai-based China Eastern was created in 1988 and is one of the largest three airlines in China, with one of the youngest fleet of planes.

It is part of the SkyTeam Alliance and U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines holds a 2% stake. China Eastern has ranked in recent years among the ten largest carriers in total passengers carried. Delta has "a strategic joint marketing and commercial cooperation arrangement covering traffic flows between China and the U.S."

Passenger traffic between China and the United States has declined dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Nick Macfie)

India puts Boeing 737 aircraft under surveillance after China crash

Air turbulence-- IT WAS NOT A 737 MAX-

By Niharika Sharma
Reporter

India has decided to put the Boeing 737 aircraft under “enhanced surveillance.”

The decision follows the crash yesterday (March 21) of one such plane belonging to China Eastern Airlines. It was carrying 132 people and crashed in Wuzhou city.

In India, SpiceJet, Vistara, and Air India Express use the Boeing 737.

“Flight safety is serious business and we are closely studying the situation,” Arun Kumar, chief of India’s directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), told news agency PTI. “In the interim, we are focusing on enhanced surveillance of our 737 fleets.”

In 2019, India had grounded the Boeing 737 Max aircraft following accidents involving them between October 2018 and March 2019, killing up to 346 people. It was only after 27 months, in August 2021, that India allowed them to fly again.

Reacting to China’s incident, the US-based Boeing told Quartz that it was prepared to assist in the investigation being led by China’s civil aviation administration.

“Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735,” a Boeing spokesperson told Quartz in a statement. “We are working with our airline customers and are ready to support them.”

China Eastern Airlines crash: families await grim news as rescuers sift through wreckage


State media report no survivors after a Boeing 737-800 flight crashed into mountainous terrain with 132 on board

Rescuers sort through debris of China plane crash as family of victims gather at airport – video

Helen Davidson in Taipei
THE GUARDIAN

Tue 22 Mar 2022 05.28 GMT

About an hour into its journey from Kunming to Gaungzhou, flight MU5735 fell out of the air. After cruising at an altitude of 29,100ft, it suddenly dropped to about 7,000ft where it briefly ascended before diving again and crashing into remote bamboo forest in the mountains near Wuzhou. The fall appears to have taken around two minutes, according to flight tracking data.

“The plane did not smoke during the fall,” a witness told the Beijing Youth Daily. “The fire started after it fell into the mountain, followed by a lot of smoke.”

Villagers reported the sound of explosions and a raging fire. Some locals raced to the scene ahead of hundreds of fire and rescue personnel – and reportedly local militia groups – travelling the final distance on foot via a dirt trail.

Chinese plane with 132 people onboard crashes in Guangxi province

There has been no official announcement on the death toll, but state media has reported there were no signs of survivors.

Footage of the crash site showed a deep scar in the earth and indiscernible wreckage scattered across the area. A large piece of debris showed a partial sign of the China Eastern Airlines brand.

The flight was carrying 132 people, including nine crew members. ID cards and wallets have reportedly been found at the scene but the plane’s black box has yet to be located and the cause of the crash is not yet known. However some details about those onboard have begun to come through as families gathered at the plane’s destination airport in Guangdong, and the airline’s office in Yunnan. According to local reports, a group of six were heading to Guangzhou for a funeral. A woman who gave a pseudonym Chen, told Jimu News the six included her sister and best friend.

Another man, surnamed Yan, told Reuters a 29-year-old colleague was on the plane, and he was left to notify their mother. “When she picked up the phone, she choked up,” said Yan, adding that he had a “heavy heart” when he heard the news.

The first rescuers on the scene had to travel the final distance to the plane’s wreckage on foot.

 Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

Chinese media outlet The Paper reported another man, referred to as Liu Li, was on his way to Guangzhou from Kunming for a reunion with his family after they bought him a ticket. Another report described a young woman on her way to meet her fiance.

“We couldn’t reach her,” her brother said. “She should have been arriving at Guangzhou after two hours. Her fiance is waiting for her at Guangzhou airport, he couldn’t find her or reach her.”

Initial reports said there were 133 people aboard, a number which was later corrected after it emerged a passenger had cancelled their flight prior to boarding.

Authorities have established a huge presence near the crash site, with multiple first responder groups, trauma specialists, psychologists, government emergency coordinators, and media. Live coverage by state media shows villagers on motorbikes carrying rescue workers and supplies up the mountain trail to the scene.

The crash is China’s worst air disaster in at least a decade, and follows recent government praise for the industry’s vastly improved safety track record. The plane flying route MU5735 was not a Boeing 737 Max, which was grounded after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, but a Boeing 737-800, one of the world’s most common passenger planes. China Eastern Airlines has grounded all of that model in its fleet, as investigations continue.

“Our thoughts are with the passengers and crew of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735,” Boeing said in a statement. “We are working with our airline customer and are ready to support them.”

The cause of the plane crash, which caused a blaze on the mountainside, is not yet known.

Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

CCTV footage from a nearby mine, shared online and verified by Jimu News and the Wall Street Journal, purports to capture the plane’s horrifyingly steep final descent, plunging at just 35 degrees off vertical.

Aviation experts in the UK said there could be multiple reasons for the crash until further evidence emerged. Tony Cable, an air accident investigator, said possibilities included a “loss of control event” or high altitude stall. Crashes during the cruising period of a flight are rare.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, called for an all-out response and investigation. Hu Xijin, a former editor of the Global Times, China’s nationalistic tabloid, called for the company to keep people updated, perhaps referring to the public furore and eventual arrests after officials covered up the true extent of the death toll in last year’s Henan flood disaster. “Absolutely do not wait until the formal end of an investigation before notifying the public,” he said.

The airline said there were no foreign nationals among the passengers. Authorities in Taiwan – which China claims as a province against its stated status as an independent nation – are working to determine if any of its citizens were onboard.

Additional reporting by Chi Hui Lin and Xiaoqian Zhu

Hopes fade of finding survivors after China Eastern airlines crash

Issued on: 22/03/2022 

00:52Plane debris is seen at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 21, 2022. © China Daily via Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Rescuers in China scoured heavily forested slopes on Tuesday with hopes fading of finding any survivors from the 132 people aboard a China Eastern Airlines passenger jet that crashed a day earlier in the mountains of southern Guangxi.

Parts of the Boeing 737-800 jet were strewn across mountain slopes charred by fire after China’s first crash involving a commercial jetliner since 2010. Burnt remains of identity cards, purses and wallets were also seen, state media reported.

Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou in Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong, when it suddenly plunged from cruising altitude at about the time when it would normally start to descend ahead of its landing.

Chinese media carried brief highway video footage from a vehicle’s dashcam apparently showing a jet diving to the ground behind trees at an angle of about 35 degrees off vertical. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

“The plane fell vertically from the sky,” state-run Beijing Youth Daily quoted a local resident as saying.

“Although I was far away, I could still see that it was a plane. The plane did not emit smoke during the fall. It fell into the mountains and started a fire.”

Lu, 64, a villager near the crash site who declined to provide his first name, told Reuters he heard a “bang, bang” at the time of the crash. “It was like thunder!” he said.

State media have described the situation as “grim”, and that the possibility of all onboard perishing could not be ruled out.

A working group from the Chinese aviation regulator was deployed to the crash site, alongside fire rescue and paramilitary forces.

Vice Premier Liu He left for Wuzhou city in Guangxi on Monday night to oversee the rescue efforts and crash investigation after an emergency government meeting.

State media described the crash site as being hemmed in by mountains on three sides, with access provided by just one tiny path. Rain was forecast for the area this week.

Authorities barred journalists and onlookers from approaching the site, keeping the road clear for emergency service vehicles.

Abrupt descent

U.S.-based aviation analyst Robert Mann of R.W. Mann & Company said investigators will need the flight data recorders to understand what might have caused the abrupt descent suggested by Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data. ADS-B is a technology that allows aircraft to be tracked.

The crash comes as Boeing seeks to rebound from several overlapping crises, including the coronavirus pandemic and crashes involving its 737 MAX model. The cockpit voice recorder could also yield clues to what went wrong once it is found.

“Accidents that start at cruise altitude are usually caused by weather, deliberate sabotage, or pilot error,” Dan Elwell, a former Federal Aviation Administration head, told Reuters.

Elwell, who led the FAA during the 737-MAX crisis, said mechanical failures in modern commercial jets were rare at cruise altitude.

China Eastern and two of its subsidiaries on Monday grounded its fleet of 737-800 planes, state media reported. The group has 225 of the aircraft, data from British aviation consultancy IBA shows.

Other Chinese airlines have yet to cancel any of their flights that use 737-800 aircraft as of Tuesday, according to data from Chinese aviation data provider Flight Master.

Onshore-listed shares of China Eastern slumped more than 6.5% on Tuesday, while those trading in Hong Kong fell nearly 6%.

Dinglong Culture, a Guangzhou-headquartered firm whose businesses range from entertainment to titanium mining, said on Tuesday its chief financial officer Fang Fang had been on the flight. The company said it was closely monitoring rescue developments and would arrange support for her family.

The last crash of a commercial jetliner in China was in 2010, when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed, killing 44 of 96 people on board.

(REUTERS)

How Could One of the World’s Favorite Jets Just Plunge to Earth Like a Ballistic Missile?

DIVE BOMB

In an age where every flight is instantly tracked, data and images of a journey that ended with 132 people dead have kicked off an extraordinary global guessing game.

Clive Irving
Published Mar. 21, 2022

WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images

Aviation experts are baffled by data showing that a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 about to begin its descent to the city of Guangzhou suddenly plunged vertically to earth like a missile, killing the 123 passengers and nine crew aboard on Monday.

This horrific disaster, the worst in recent Chinese aviation history, highlights that the kind of data that once took investigators at least days to gather is now instantly available from open source tracking sites like FlightRadar. As a result, speculation about the cause of a crash creates an instant Twitter storm as pilots and technical experts attempt to interpret what they are looking at.

Boeing 737 Was Plunging at 350MPH in Moments Before Crash
STRAIGHT DOWN
Philippe Naughton


In this case, there is a striking consensus that something very unusual happened that cannot directly relate to previous disasters involving this version of the 737, one of the most flown jets in the world, which preceded the 737-MAX version that was grounded for nearly two years after two catastrophic accidents.

The flight pattern revealed by radar shows that the airplane was flying at 29,100 feet over mountainous terrain, with the crew about to prepare for the descent, when the nose abruptly pitched down and it began the dive. As it neared the terrain it seemed to briefly pull up but then resumed the dive to impact with enormous force.

The only certain details are what did not happen: there was no indication of an engine fire and no sign of any major part of the airplane breaking up. Significantly, there was no time for the crew to send a Mayday distress call.

There have been several cases of various models of the 737 suffering an explosive decompression, when part of the fuselage structure, weakened by undetected cracks in the outer skin, suddenly rips open and the air in the pressurized cabin is released in a blast, but even with that damage pilots have been able to get the airplane down safely, even with parts of the cabin open to the skies.

But those events happened early in the flights, when the airplanes were reaching cruise altitude, not as in this case at the end of the cruise and at the beginning of the approach to the airport.

One aerospace engineer, commenting on the Aviation Herald site, says, “It is not normal for a plane to nose dive into the ground, it rules out a lot of failures.” Another says, “To those who can’t think of any reason… there are a lot. Some repeats from things that already happened, perhaps something that has never happened before. Aviation is like that.”

The Machiavellian Reason China Is Squeezing Boeing
Clive Irving


There was a case where a similar dive was involved: in 1997 Silk Air Flight 185, when an earlier model 737 crashed into a river in Sumatra, killing 104 people, where an investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the pilot had deliberately triggered the dive in an act of suicide, but this verdict was disputed by Indonesian regulators, who cited problems with the rudder controls that had caused other crashes of that model.

Another possibility is that although no break-up was visible on the radar track some part of the horizontal stabilizer, which would be activated to begin descent, may have broken off.

All of this leads to one urgent task—to find an answer in the one place where it should be found, in the airplane’s black boxes. The crash site is accessible and teams are headed there. There is, however, some concern that these flight data recorders might not survive such a devastating impact.

The Chinese regulators and investigators are highly regarded. China was the first country to ground the 737-Max and the last to allow it to return to the skies. Domestic air travel in China has grown rapidly in the last decade but there have been very few accidents.

Before Guangxi crash, 22 accidents involved Boeing 737-800 in history, 10 fatal

Before the plane crash in China's Guangxi on Monday, the Boeing 737-800 model was involved in 22 accidents, according to Aviation Safety Network (ASN).

Ten among those incidents were fatal, per the ASN database, with the first fatal crash on the record happening in September 2006 when an 18-day-old 737-800 collided mid-air in Brazil, killing 154 people.

The most recent case happened in August 2020 when an Air India Express flight slid off the runway in Kozhikode-Calicut Airport in India, killing 21 people.

At about 2:38 p.m. on Monday, a China Eastern Airlines passenger jetliner with 132 people on board crashed into a mountainous area in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Graphic by CGTN's Liu Shaozhen


The plane was flying from the southwestern city of Kunming to south China's Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou, the Civil Aviation Administration of China confirmed.

The number of casualties remains unknown as of 11:30 p.m. Beijing time. Company officials said the carrier has grounded all Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the crash.

Here is a list of all the accidents involving the model:

Graphic by CGTN's Zhu Shangfan

The Boeing 737-800 NG is widely used around the world.

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-800 NG commercial flight lands at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2020.Credit...Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto, via Getty Images

By Niraj Chokshi
March 21, 2022, 

The Boeing 737-800 NG, the model that crashed in China on Monday, is a workhorse of the skies.

There are nearly 25,000 passenger planes in service worldwide, according to Cirium, an aviation data provider. Of those, about 4,200, or 17 percent, are Boeing 737-800 NGs. China is home to nearly 1,200 of those planes, followed by Europe, with nearly 1,000, and the United States, with nearly 800.

American Airlines has 265 737-800 NGs in service, while Southwest Airlines has 205, United Airlines has 136 and Delta Air Lines has 77, according to Cirium. Boeing delivered nearly 5,000 of the planes to customers between 1998 and 2020, according to Boeing data.

China is the largest market for Boeing planes after the United States. Last year, Boeing forecast that the number of commercial planes in China would double by 2040, with Chinese airlines needing 8,700 new aircraft by then, valued at about $1.47 trillion.

The country is perhaps more crucial for Boeing’s leading rival, Airbus. Last year, Airbus delivered 142 commercial aircraft to China, its largest single-country market, representing a quarter of Airbus’s global commercial aircraft production.

Airbus has a mammoth assembly line in the city of Tianjin, producing the A320 single-aisle planes and A330 wide-body passenger jets. It also has relationships with Chinese airline and helicopter operators, and many components in Airbus jets are made by Chinese companies. The value of the Airbus and Chinese cooperation reached around $500 million in 2015.

Liz Alderman contributed reporting.
Niraj Chokshi covers the business of transportation, with a focus on autonomous vehicles, airlines and logistics. @nirajc

China Plane Crash

China sends emergency teams, top official to oversee first full day of rescue.

The China Eastern plane descended more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute.

A deafening boom, a plume of smoke: Farmers describe a plane plunging from the sky.

Shares of Boeing are lower after the China Eastern plane crash.

China’s recent air safety record is strong, after a troubled past.

China Eastern is the nation’s second-biggest carrier.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

Spanish Truckers’ Protest Widens as More Firms Hit by Disruption

Alonso Soto, Bloomberg News

Three major federations of truck owners will join a protest in Spain over soaring fuel prices despite the government’s pledge to give direct aid, escalating a movement that’s hindering trade and some industries. 

French dairy giant Danone warned on Tuesday that it will have to temporarily halt operations in Spain within 24 hours if the demonstration continues. The world’s largest yogurt maker is the latest company that may be hit by the week-long protest that has disrupted supply chains for car and clothes manufacturers, milk producers and supermarket chains.   

Facing rising social discontent about skyrocketing energy costs, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is touring European capitals this week to try to whip up support for an overhaul of the continent’s energy markets. His government is also working back home to gain political backing for a package of measures to cushion the fallout of the war in Ukraine.

The truckers’ protest is due to continue after three federations of transportation companies said the government’s pledges for 500 million euros ($550 million) in direct help was not enough and more details would be needed in the coming days. Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on Monday that the aid, which will be partly paid by oil companies, will lower fuel costs for truck drivers and owners.  

If Sanchez doesn’t came up with stronger measures to contain prices of products besides energy, the country could face more social upheaval in the coming weeks, said Unai Sordo, the head of Comisiones Obreras, Spain’s largest confederation of unions.

Thousands of fishermen went on strike on Monday and farmers are threatening action to demand help with energy costs that surged further after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. Meanwhile, Inditex SA, the world’s largest clothing retailer, said on the website of its Zara brand that some deliveries in Spain may be delayed due to the protest by the truck drivers, who are also demanding better working conditions.

“It all depends on what the government puts on the table,” Sordo said in an interview. “If the government can take measures to ease the spike in prices, from fertilizers to fuel, then the situation can return to normal.”

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Security strike at German airports causes cancellation

s

A stranded passenger rests in a terminal at the airport in Frankfurt (AP)

TUE, 22 MAR, 2022 - 10:56
AP REPORTERS

A strike by security staff at eight German airports – among them Frankfurt, a major intercontinental hub – has led to widespread disruption and flight cancellations.

The ver.di union called the all-day strike at Frankfurt, Germany’s busiest airport, as well as Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Cologne-Bonn, before a round of pay talks with employers scheduled for Thursday.

It followed walkouts at several airports last week.

At Frankfurt, 108 out of the day’s 790 planned flights had been cancelled by Tuesday morning, German news agency dpa reported.

Travellers stand in front of a display board in an airport terminal

 in Hamburg (dpa via AP)

Passengers due to start their journeys at the airport were unable to board, though passengers could transfer flights.

All 88 planned departures from Hamburg were cancelled.

Security checks at German airports are under the supervision of federal police, but largely conducted by private firms.

Security officials in Bavaria are paid in line with a pay deal for public service employees and are not going on strike.