That's according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.

A Wall Street Journal report cited US officials who said flight data from one of the plane's black boxes showed someone in the cockpit intentionally crashed the plane.

The incident was mainland china's deadliest air disaster in decades, killing all 123 passengers and nine crew members onboard.

Jet maker Boeing the U.

S.

National Transportation Safety Board and the chinese embassy in Washington declined to comment.

NTSB investigators traveled to china to assist with the probe and helped review black box data at a U.

S.

Lab in Washington.

The Boeing 737 800 was on a short flight in southern China before it took rapid descent and crashed in a mountain range in the province of Guangxi.

Authorities have said the pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers and nearby planes During the plunge china Eastern could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.

But the Wall Street Journal reported that the airline said in a statement that no evidence emerged that could determine whether or not there were any problems with the aircraft.

In a summary of its preliminary crash report in april Chinese regulators did not point to any technical recommendations on the 737, which has been in service since 1997 with a strong safety record, according to experts on Wednesday morning screenshots of the Wall Street Journal Story appeared to be centered on china's twitter, like platform Weibo and messaging app, Wechat.

The hashtag topics, china, eastern and china Eastern black boxes were banned on Weibo, and users are unable to share the story in group chats on Wechat.