China Eastern Plane Crash May Be Intentional, US Officials Find: Report –

After examining one of the black boxes removed at the scene, U.S. officials investigating the plane crash in eastern China that killed 132 people in March found evidence that the crash was deliberate.

The black box showed “Input Controls” that caused the crash, According to the Wall Street Journal, which first leaked the information.

“The plane does what someone said it would do in the cockpit,” the man told the magazine about the preliminary results.

The near-vertical landing of the plane and the fact that Chinese officials did not release any reports of mechanical problems of the plane also gave credibility to the assessment of U.S. officials.

Officers are also investigating information about one of the pilots, who they think may be involved in some personal matter unknown at the time. ABC News reported.

The airline said the pilots lived a stable life and had no financial problems. The company also says someone else may have entered the booth, a theory presented by sources cited by the magazine.

The Boeing 737-800 plane originally flew from Kunming and to Guangzhou. It falls in a mountainous area near Wuzhou, located in the Guangxi region of the country. The crash caused a fire large enough to capture NASA satellite images, the Associated Press reported.

Seven staff of the National Transportation Safety Board traveled to China in early April to assist the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration in its investigation, as the aircraft was made in the United States. According to the AP.

“The NTSB will not release further updates on the CAAC’s investigation into China’s Eastern 5735 incident,” the NTSB said in a statement, according to ABC News. “When and if the CAAC will issue updates is entirely up to them. And I haven’t heard any plans for them.”