New Flight Data Suggests Someone Intentionally Cut Fuel on Doomed China Eastern Flight 5735
Four years after a Boeing 737-800 plunged 29,000 feet into a mountainside in southern China, newly released flight data appears to show that someone in the cockpit deliberately switched off the fuel supply to both engines.
The documents, released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal the final moments of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 with stunning clarity: the simultaneous shutdown of both engines, the violent push of the control yoke, and the active struggle to control the plane until it hit the ground .
The crash, which occurred on March 21, 2022, near Wuzhou in Guangxi, killed all 123 passengers and nine crew members on board — China’s deadliest aviation disaster in nearly 30 years . The 737-800 had been cruising normally from Kunming to Guangzhou before it suddenly entered a steep, near-vertical descent.
But while the world has known the “what” for years — the aircraft plummeted at an astonishing vertical speed — the NTSB files, dated April 29, 2026, finally offer a window into the critical “how” and “why.”
🕹️ Cockpit Actions: ‘The Plane Did What It Was Told To Do’
According to the flight data recorder (FDR) information contained in the release, the sequence of events was deliberate and methodical .
Approximately 23 seconds before the recorder stopped functioning, the fuel control switches for both of the Boeing 737-800’s engines were simultaneously moved from the RUN position to the CUTOFF position. This action — which on a 737 requires the pilot to physically lift a lever before moving it — starved the engines of fuel . Seconds later, the autopilot was disengaged.
| Timestamp (Pre-Crash) | Cockpit Action | Aircraft Reaction |
|---|---|---|
| T-0:23 | Fuel switches moved to CUTOFF (both engines) | Engines begin to lose power |
| T-0:20 | Control yoke pushed violently forward | Aircraft nose drops into steep dive |
| T-0:23 | Power lost / FDR stops recording | Aircraft continues descent (CVR still active) |
Roughly 20 seconds before the recorder lost power, a control yoke (the “steering wheel” of the aircraft) was violently pushed forward. The FDR shows that for the remainder of the recording, someone was actively controlling the yoke. The data reveals persistent violent inputs, with the ailerons (which control the plane’s roll) fluctuating wildly — suggesting that while one set of hands may have been forcing the plane down, another was desperately fighting to regain control .
David Soucie, a former NTSB safety inspector, told CNN that the data “clearly indicate that the fuel switches were manually set to the OFF position immediately before the crash” .
🇨🇳 ‘The Plane Did What It Was Told To Do’
The new data aligns with preliminary assessments from May 2022, when a source familiar with U.S. officials’ analysis told The Wall Street Journal a chilling summation: “The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit” .
The NTSB has confirmed that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) audio was downloaded and handed over to China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) in 2022. Crucially, unlike the FDR, the CVR has a backup battery; it continued recording after the engines failed. The NTSB stated it did not retain a copy of that audio file .
That means the voices and sounds from inside the cockpit in the final seconds — the moments after the fuel was cut — remain in the exclusive possession of the Chinese government. The CAAC has not released any findings from that audio, nor has it issued a final public report on the crash.
The CAAC’s last substantive update was in 2024, a brief filing that reiterated that no mechanical, weather, or crew health anomalies were found. In June 2025, the agency formally refused to release the final investigation report, citing that “disclosure may endanger national security and social stability” .
🔎 A Pattern of Intent: The History of ‘Cockpit Suicide’
If the NTSB data is correct and the fuel was deliberately cut, Flight 5735 would join a grim list of aviation disasters caused by intentional pilot action.
| Flight (Year) | Aircraft | Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Germanwings 9525 (2015) | Airbus A320 | Co-pilot deliberately crashed into the French Alps |
| SilkAir 185 (1997) | Boeing 737-300 | NTSB concluded pilot inputs caused crash into Musi River |
| EgyptAir 990 (1999) | Boeing 767 | Relief first officer intentionally crashed into Atlantic |
| LAM Mozambique 470 (2013) | Embraer E190 | Pilot intentionally crashed |
As aviation safety experts point out, these cases share a common thread: they often leave a “signature” in the FDR data — an unexpected, manual override of automated systems that defies mechanical logic . The data from Flight 5735 shows exactly that signature.
The release of the NTSB data has immediately reignited scrutiny on the CAAC. For four years, Beijing has kept the families of the 132 victims and the global aviation community in the dark. These documents suggest it was not a mystery of engineering, but likely a tragedy of the human heart — and someone in the cockpit knew exactly what they were doing.