China Eastern Crash Cause 2026: NTSB Report Confirms Manual Fuel Cut-Off

Published: 5 May 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

Four years after China Eastern Flight MU5735 fell from the sky in a near-vertical dive, a newly released report from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has provided the most chilling evidence to date regarding the disaster’s cause. According to data retrieved from the aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR) and released under a Freedom of Information Act request, the fuel supply to both engines was manually cut off while the Boeing 737-800 was cruising at 29,000 feet.

The revelation—which supports a long-standing theory of intentional pilot action—marks a major “milestone” in a case that has been shrouded in “clinical silence” by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), which has yet to release its own final accident report.

The NTSB data provides a technical minute-by-minute breakdown of the moments before the jet impacted a hillside in Guangxi, killing all 132 people on board.

Manual Intervention: The report states that the fuel control switches for both engines moved from the “run” position to “cut-off.” On this aircraft model, these switches are physical controls that a pilot must lift and pull by hand—an action that cannot be performed by accident or through a software glitch.

The Powerless Plunge: Immediately following the fuel cut-off, engine speeds decreased rapidly. The aircraft entered a nose-down attitude so severe that it reportedly approached the speed of sound before impact.

No Restart Attempt: Critically, the NTSB found no evidence that the switches were ever returned to the “on” position, indicating there was no attempt to restart the engines during the two-minute descent.

The release of this data has intensified scrutiny of the CAAC’s refusal to finalize the investigation.

Transparency Deficit: International aviation guidelines typically require a final report within one year. China’s four-year delay, justified by “national security and social stability” concerns, has led to accusations of an “accountability rot” within the state’s aviation oversight.

The “Struggle” in the Cockpit: While the NTSB summary does not name a perpetrator, previous leaks from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) suggest a struggle between the pilots may have occurred, with one reportedly forcing the nose down while the other attempted to counter the input—a “human-machine coordination” failure of the most tragic kind.

The “Medication Desert” of Facts: Families of the victims have long lived in a “dopamine desert” of information, with the CAAC’s only updates being brief statements in 2024 confirming the plane was technically sound before takeoff.

As King Charles concludes his Washington visit, where he and U.S. leaders discussed “global stability,” the MU5735 report is being viewed as a “national security emergency” for the aviation industry.

The “Hormuz” of Data: Just as the Strait of Hormuz blockade has forced a trade reset, this report is forcing a reset on pilot mental health monitoring and cockpit security protocols globally.

The “Golden Tone” of Truth: Aviation experts argue that by confirming the fuel cut-off, the NTSB has provided a “golden tone” of clarity that the Chinese government can no longer ignore.

As the RHS Wisley wisteria blooms and the Southbank Centre celebrates 75 years of resilience, the families of MU5735 are finally seeing the “invisible” cause of their grief made public.

“The data doesn’t lie,” said one aviation safety analyst. “This was not a mechanical failure; it was a deliberate choice.” With the King’s Speech on May 13 expected to emphasize “International Cooperation,” the pressure is now on Beijing to break its “clinical silence” and address the human factor that led to China’s deadliest air disaster in decades.

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