Breaking: China Eastern Boeing 737 crashes with 132 aboard: Chinese aviation officials

A Boeing 737 with 132 people on board operated by China Eastern crashed in the southern province of Guangxi on Monday, officials said.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China said in a statement the crash occurred near the city of Wuzhou in Teng county. The flight was traveling from Kunming in the western province of Yunnan to the industrial center of Guangzhou along the east coast, it added.

The twin-engine Boeing jet was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, officials said. It is unknown anyone was killed or injured in the crash.

China Eastern’s flight No. 5735 had been traveling at around 30,000 feet when suddenly, just after 0620 GMT, the plane entered a deep dive at its cruising altitude speed of 455 knots (523 mph), according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The data suggests the plane crashed within a minute and a half of whatever went wrong.

Satellite data from NASA showed a massive fire in the area near where the plane went down at the time of the crash.

China Eastern is one of the country’s “Big Three” airlines, along with Air China and China Southern Airlines. It flies multiple versions of the 737, including the 700 and 800 series and Max. The latter version of the single-aisle jet is still grounded in China.