INTERNATIONAL: A China Eastern passenger jet carrying 132 people crashed in southern China on Monday, aviation authorities have said. The crash led to a fire on a mountain.

There were no signs of survivors and bad weather has slowed recovery efforts. It was also reported there were no foreigners on board.

China Eastern has said the cause of the crash was "still under investigation" and it did not provide any detail, but in an official filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange it has expressed "its deep condolences for the passengers and crew members who died in the plane crash."

The Boeing 737-800 from Kunming city to the southern hub of Guangzhou "lost airborne contact over Wuzhou" city in the Guangxi region, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)has said earlier.

State broadcaster CCTV has said the plane crashed in Teng county near Wuzhou and "has caused a mountain fire," citing the provincial emergency management bureau. The crash site was about 150 miles from the destination of Guangzhou, meaning the aircraft had traveled almost 805 kilomteres before coming down.

Tracking data has showed the flight was traveling at a normal cruising altitude of about 30,000 feet when it suddenly went into a deep dive. The aircraft then briefly climbed 1,000 feet before the data abruptly ends, about 40 seconds later. The data suggest the plane crashed within about 90 seconds of whatever first sent it plummeting toward the ground.

Chicago-based Boeing Company has said it was aware of the initial reports of the crash and was "working to gather more information." Boeing stock dropped over 8 percent in pre-market trading early Monday.

After the crash on Monday, Chinese financial news outlet Yicai, based in the economic hub of Shanghai, has reported that China Eastern was going to ground all of its 737-800s pending an investigation, but the airline did not immediately confirm the move.

117 rescuers were working at the crash site and that 650 more rescuers and firefighters, organized by the Guangxi fire department, were also at the site. The Guangxi fire service has said crews were battling to extinguish a blaze on a hillside sparked by the crash, and satellite data from NASA showed a massive fire in the area.

There are nine separate teams working on everything from disposal of the wreckage to the crash investigation and passenger family assistance.

We are shocked to learn of the China Eastern MU5735 accident,"

The Chinese President has said, they were shocked to learn of the China Eastern MU5835 accident. He called for "all efforts" to be taken to rescue any survivors and to find out the "cause of the accident as soon as possible."

The plane was delivered to China Eastern by Boeing in June 2015.

The twin-engine, single aisle Boeing 737 is one of the world's most widely-used passenger jets for short and medium-haul flights. China Eastern operates various versions of the 737, including the 737-800, which crashed on Monday, and the 737 Max, which was grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes.

Robert Sumwalt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the 737-800 "has had a very good safety record over the years." But he said it's unlikely there will be survivors. “I hate to say so, but I do not believe there's any chance that anybody would have survived a crash like this."

It was the latest Chinese commercial passenger flight crash that caused civilian casualties. The deadliest Chinese commercial flight crash was a China Northwest Airlines crash in 1994 which killed all 160 onboard.

Most of the passengers onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, were from China.

The ongoing nighttime rescue face multiple challenges, such as lack of communication network in the mountains and poor lighting. Therefore, telecommunication support vehicles have also been dispatched there to ensure smooth communication among rescuers.

Bad weather might pose the biggest challenge. The meteorological bureau of Guangxi forecast that there will be a temperature drop and heavy rainfall late Monday night in Tengxian County. The rain may last for two or three days.