Data suggests someone intentionally downed China Eastern plane

Black box data recovered from a China Eastern flight that crashed in March suggests someone in the cockpit intentionally downed the plane, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a preliminary assessment from United States officials.

According to CNN, the Boeing 737-800 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it nosedived from 29,000 feet midair into the mountains, killing all 132 passengers and crew on board. It was China’s deadliest air disaster in decades.

Information extracted from the plane’s damaged flight-data recorder shows human input orders to the controls sent the plane into its deadly dive, according to the Journal, citing people familiar with the probe.

“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” the Journal quoted a person who is familiar with American officials’ preliminary assessment as saying.