China Eastern Airlines (600115. SS) has resumed commercial flights using Boeing 737-800 jetliners less than a month after a tragedy that killed 132 people on board and grounded nearly 200 of its planes, according to data from a tracking website.
China Eastern flight MU5843, a three-year-old Boeing 737-800, took off from Kunming in southwestern China at 09:58 a.m. local time (0158 GMT) on Sunday and landed in Chengdu, also in southern China, at 11:03 a.m. local time, according to Flightradar24 data.
According to Flightradar24, the aircraft left Chengdu at 13:02 p.m. on Saturday after completing a test flight.
According to Flightradar24 data, another Boeing 737-800 jet did a test flight in Shanghai, where China Eastern is based, on Sunday morning.
China Eastern did not respond to a request for comment right away.
Flight MU5735, on its way from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in the Guangxi highlands on March 21, killing 123 passengers and nine crew members in mainland China’s greatest aviation catastrophe in 28 years.
China has recovered both black boxes and stated that it will submit a preliminary report to the United Nations Aviation Organization (ICAO) within 30 days after the incident.