China plane crash: What happens when a plane nosedives? Things You Need to Know

Beijing, Mar 21: A Chinese passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, the regional emergency management department said. The Boeing 737 aircraft of China Eastern Airlines, which flew from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, causing a mountain fire, the department was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The 132 people included 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on its website. The number of casualties is not clear yet, the report said.

The China Eastern's flight No. 5735 had been traveling at around 30,000 feet when suddenly, just after 0620 GMT, the plane entered a deep dive at its cruising altitude speed of 455 knots (523 mph, 842 kph), according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. The data suggests the plane crashed within a minute and a half of whatever went wrong.

What happens when a plane nosedives?

When the plane goes into a dive, your body and the plane will eventually be falling at the same rate and it will appear that you are weightless within the plane. What's interesting is that the body is not actually weightless - this is just a sensation.

When a plane goes into a sharp bank, a spiral turn, or a very deep dive, huge amounts of G force are exerted on the body. As the plane reaches terminal velocity, the body can no longer compensate for the sheer force inflicted upon it.

Passengers may lose vision, then lose their sense of where they are and what's happening before finally slipping into unconsciousness.

Can a plane recover from a stall?

To recover from a stall, the pilot must push the nose down. Then the pilot must increase the engine power using the throttle. When air speed increases again, the pilot can level the wings and pull up to return the aircraft to normal flight.