Cause of airline crash still unknown, authorities say

The cause of the crash of a China Eastern Airlines aircraft on March 21 has yet to be determined, and rumors saying that the analysis of the data of the black boxes has been completed and that the co-pilot is responsible are untrue, an official with the China Aviation Administration of China said.

CAAC has noticed that rumors about the tragedy being spread in the name of government bodies and public security departments have been recently circulating online.

Besides blaming the co-pilot for the crash and announcing that the analysis of the black boxes has been completed, some rumors have also stated that the administration has issued an urgent directive requiring pilots to take psychological health assessments. These are all untrue, Wu Shijie, deputy director of the administration's safety office, told a monthly routine news conference on Monday.

"Those rumors have severely misguided the public and interrupted the investigation. Together with the public security departments, we are trying to find out those who are responsible for spreading these rumors, and they will be handled in accordance with the law," Wu said. "Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash, so it's still too early to draw conclusions."

The Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming, Yunnan province, for Guangzhou, Guangdong province, crashed in Tengxian county of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on March 21. All 132 people on board died.

It's undeniable that the crash has caused pilots and airline staff certain degrees of psychological and emotional impact, Wu said.

Some of them, especially young employees, have become stressed and depressed. The administration has attached great importance to their mental health conditions, he said.

"We asked the airlines to offer psychological support to airline pilots and staff to ensure they are emotionally stable," he added.