China Eastern Flight 5735 was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou in southern China on March 21 when it rapidly lost altitude in a mountainous area near the city of Wuzhou, just an hour west of Guangzhou.<\/b>
\nAn intentional nose-dive led to the plane crash that killed 132 people in China earlier this year, U.S. investigators told multiple outlets. China Eastern Flight 5735 was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou in southern China on March 21 when it rapidly lost altitude in a mountainous area near the city of Wuzhou, just an hour west of Guangzhou. All 123 passengers and nine crew members died in the mysterious disaster. The plane was traveling fast enough to leave a 66-foot-deep crater in the ground. This screengrab taken on March 24 from video by state broadcaster China Central Television shows rescue teams with a piece of the fuselage from a China Eastern passenger jet that crashed onto a mountainside near Wuzhou. (STR\/AFPTV\/AFP via )
Both black boxes were recovered, and the flight data recorder showed someone in the cockpit intentionally set the plane to crash, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
\u201cThe plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,\u201d a source told the Journal. Several groups are investigating the crash, and no mechanical issues have been found with the Boeing 373-800 series aircraft, according to ABC News. The Civil Aviation Administration of China is controlling the flow of information and has more access that its U.S. counterparts. In stark contrast to the much maligned Boeing 737 MAX, the Boeing 737-800 has an extensive history of safe operation worldwide. Any motivation for such a deliberately horrible act remains unclear. While ABC News reported that one of the pilots \u201cmay have been struggling\u201d with personal issues, the Journal reported the exact opposite.<\/p>\n