After crash, airline suspends flight of 223 Boeing 737 model aircraft

China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries have temporarily suspended 223 Boeing 737-800 model aircraft, airline spokesman Liu Xiaodong told a news conference on Thursday. It is the same type of plane that was involved in the accident in the mountains of the Guangxi region of southern China.

Aircraft on the ground are undergoing safety inspection and maintenance to ensure they are safe to fly, Liu said. The airline launched a comprehensive safety review following the accident, he added.

The move comes days after China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed in a remote, mountainous region in the south of the country while flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, in China’s worst air disaster in more than a decade.

The flight had 132 people on board. No survivors have been found after a third day of search efforts, Chinese investigators said Wednesday.

The cause of the accident has not yet been determined. But Wednesday’s discovery of the cockpit voice recorder could provide crucial clues to how the disaster unfolded. It’s one of two so-called “black boxes”, with investigators still looking for the flight data recorder.

The 737-800 is the most common version of Boeing jets currently in service and is the flagship of many airline fleets.

There are 4,502 of the 737-800s in service worldwide, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium, making it by far the most common Boeing aircraft in use today.

It is the most common aircraft model in the United States, where there are 795 in service, as well as in China, with 1,177 in service. And it is the second most used aircraft in the world, behind only the A320 manufactured by Boeing’s main rival (BA), Airbus (EADSF).