Pope Francis offered his “heartfelt condolences” to China after a Boeing 737 plane carrying 132 passengers crashed in hills in the southern part of the country.
The pope sent a condolence telegram to China’s President Xi Jinping on March 22 after China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 crashed on Monday in Guangxi province.
China’s Civil Aviation Administration said on Tuesday that rescuers had so far failed to discover any survivors.
The telegram sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin read: “Upon hearing the sad news of the tragic air accident in the province of Guangxi and the loss of human lives, His Holiness Pope Francis sends his heartfelt condolences to you and your fellow citizens.”
“He prays for those who perished and for the consolation of those who mourn. His Holiness invokes upon each one the Divine Blessing.”
China and the Holy See have not had diplomatic relations since 1951, following the Chinese Communist Revolution. But the two parties signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops in 2018, which was renewed for a further two years in 2020.
China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735, with nine crew members and 123 passengers on board was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, state television quoted the Civil Aviation Administration of China as saying.
The plane went down in a rural county of the city of Wuzhou, where a video taken by local villagers shows flames shooting high above trres near the site of the crash.
China Eastern Airlines has earlier expressed its deep condolences to those who lost their lives, in a statement that said that all passengers and crew on the flight were Chinese nationals.
China’s most recent domestic crash was in 2010, when a passenger plane went down in Yichun, Heilongjiang province, killing 42. – with reports from Catholic News Agency and Radio Free Asia
