BEIJING, (Reuters) – Rescuers from China searched heavily wooded slopes Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors of the 132 passengers aboard a China Eastern Airlines passenger jet (NYSE:) that had crashed in southern Guangxi’s mountains.

The parts of the Boeing (NYSE 🙂 737-880 aircraft were left strewn over mountain slopes that had been charred by flames after China’s first accident involving a commercial airliner in China since 2010. State media also reported that the remains of wallets, purses, and identity cards were seen as well.

The flight MU5735 was on its way from Kunming in the southwest, Yunnan Province capital, to Guangzhou, Guangdong provincial bordering Hong Kong when it abruptly dropped from cruising height and crashed.

Chinese media showed a brief clip from the dashcam of a car showing footage that shows a jet descending to ground below trees, at an angle about 35 degrees above vertical. Reuters couldn’t immediately confirm the footage.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, a local resident said that the plane “fell vertically from heaven.”

“I could see it from a distance, even though I wasn’t close enough to the plane. The aircraft did not produce smoke from the fall. It crashed into mountains where it set off a flame.

China Eastern’s website was made black-and-white after the tragic incident, as it expressed its sorrow. The situation was described by the state media as “grim” and the possibility that all aboard would perish.

Along with fire rescue personnel and paramilitary troops, a working group of the Chinese aviation regulator was sent to the site. After an emergency meeting, Vice Premier Liu He traveled to Wuzhou in Guangxi Monday night to supervise the rescue operations and investigate the crash.

According to the State Council (or the cabinet), it will assign officials who will deal with the incident as a priority and identify the source as quickly as possible. It also plans to strengthen safety checks in civil aviation.

The state media stated that the area surrounding the crash site was surrounded by mountains from three directions. Access is only possible by one small path. The area was set to receive rain this week.

Robert Mann (based in the U.S.) is an aviation analyst at 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 allows for aircraft tracking.

‘GRIM’

In mainland China, the last commercial jetliner crash was on October 10, 2010, when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flew by Henan Airlines collided with Yichun Airport in low visibility. 44 people were killed.

Because such accidents are often multifactorial, experts warn it’s premature to make any conclusion about possible causes, particularly given the lack of information.

State media reported that the airline grounded its 737-800 aircraft fleet on Monday. FlightRadar24 reports that it currently has 109 such aircraft.

Boeing is trying to recover from multiple overlapping crises including the coronavirus pandemic, and crashes involving its 737 MAX aircraft model.

Cai Von Rumohr from Cowen Inc said that “given Boeing’s issues with the 737 MAX there is a possibility that consumers might not want to fly on a 737 till the cause of China Eastern crashes is determined not be a design issue or manufacturing problem.”

The cause of the crash is therefore crucial. Von Rumohr stated that the aircraft crashed in the woods rather than over the ocean. This makes it easier to retrieve the voice recorder from the cockpit, which will provide valuable data about what happened.

China Eastern shares listed onshore fell more than 5% Tuesday while Hong Kong stocks traded in the early hours of trade dropped 4%