The aircraft took off at 8:20 am local time (00:20 UTC). In less than a minute, it was out of control and crashed into a lake inside Nanhai Park, two kilometres from the airport. Eyewitnesses reported seeing smoke near the plane shortly after take off, followed by shaking of the plane and then its eventual crash. The CVR recording contains the captain calling "What's wrong?" and passengers crying at the time of the crash.

The aircraft departed 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Aircraft

• Model: Bombardier CRJ-200ER
• Registration: B-3072
• Serial Number: 7697
• Engine: General Electric CF34-3B1
• Year of Delivery: 2002

Crew members

• Flight Crew
  • Captain: Wang Pin (王品);
  • Vice Captain: Yang Guang (杨光);
  • First Officer: Yi Qinwei (易沁炜);
• Flight Attendants: Huang Chongyan (黄崇燕), Shi Meimian (史美棉);
• Security Officer: Jiang Chaohong (姜朝宏).

Passengers

50 of the total 53 passengers on board were Chinese, 2 are from USA and 1 was from Taiwan.

Weather

Weather at the time of crash was reported to be normal, although the temperature was below zero degrees Celsius. A rumor claiming that ice particles in the fuel caused the disaster, similar to British Airways Flight 38, was later disproven.

Investigation

The investigation revealed that the accident aircraft (B-3072) had been parked overnight at Baotou Airport in cold weather conditions, causing a layer of frost to form on the exterior.

The aircraft was not de-iced prior to the flight. During takeoff, the frost contamination severely degraded aerodynamic performance, and as the jet rotated, it entered a stall from which the flight crew was unable to recover. The aircraft crashed into a frozen lake in Nanhai Park, about two kilometers from the runway, and also struck a park ticket office, killing two park employees, in addition to the 53 persons on board.

Aftermath

In 2006, twelve China Eastern Airlines employees were found to be responsible for the accident, and received administrative punishment.

China Eastern no longer operates this route and stopped in Beijing again. All flights between Baotou and Shanghai are now operated by its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines as Flights 9438 and 9136 (to Hongqiao direct flight).