--- title: "Experts Puzzled by Video of Jet Diving Five Miles Straight Into Ground" description: "The Boeing 747 that crashed in a horrifying 90 degree nosedive is is puzzling experts and investigators looking into the dramatic accident." date: "2022-03-23" modified: "2022-03-23" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/experts-puzzled-jet-diving-ground" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "airplanes" - "boeing" - "plane crash" - "the digest" --- # Experts Puzzled by Video of Jet Diving Five Miles Straight Into Ground ![The Boeing 747 that crashed in a horrifying 90 degree nosedive is is puzzling experts and investigators looking into the dramatic accident.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Deadly Impact The Boeing 747 that [crashed in a horrifying 90 degree nosedive]() is as puzzling and fear-inducing to experts as it is to everyone who watched the now-viral video of it. As [*Bloomberg News* notes](), the Chinese Eastern Airlines flight whose jaw-dropping crash appears to have been [captured on a security video from a mining company]() near the impact site has stumped investigators and experts alike as they search for what caused its dramatic and fatal descent. "It’s an odd profile," John Cox, an aviation safety specialist and former 737 pilot, told *Bloomberg* in what is perhaps the greatest understatement of 2022 so far. "It’s hard to get the airplane to do this." ## Concerted Effort Though there have been other plane crashes involving similarly dramatic dives, Benjamin Berman, a former investigator with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) who also used to fly 747s, told *Bloomberg* that previous scenarios aren't good points of comparisons because 737-800s, the model of the Boeing in this latest crash, are designed not to dive at such steep angles. It would either take a concerted, difficult, and deliberate effort from a pilot to make a jetliner like a 747 dive the way Flight 5735 did, Berman added — or a very rare and troubling malfunction. "You need something to hold the nose down," the former NTSB official said. ## No Survivors https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1506288414781546496 Chinese authorities say they've [found one of the two black boxes]() from the horrible crash, but haven't yet revealed what was on it. What is known so far about the crash, however, is as baffling as it is devastating. According to Zhu Tao, the director of safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, air traffic controllers continuously tried to reach the pilots of the flight to no avail. Zhu added in his statement that the hilly terrain where the plane crashed made for a particularly terrible impact as the plane fell at roughly 30,000 feet per minute, according to [data from Flightradar24](). While all the experts *Bloomberg* spoke to reiterated that it's too soon to jump to conclusions about what happened to Chinese Eastern Airlines Flight 5735, one thing's for sure: the world now has another [bona fide aerial mystery]() on its hands. **READ MORE:** [China Jet’s Nosedive From 29,000 Feet Baffles Crash Specialists]() \[*Bloomberg News*\] **More plane crashes:** *[21 People Miraculously Survive Horrific Plane Crash in Texas]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()