One of the two black boxes of China Eastern plane found
One of two black boxes from the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed with 132 people on board was found Wednesday, the aviation regulator said.
The black box was severely damaged and it was not whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder, a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official said at a press conference.
He later claimed that the recovered black box is the cockpit voice recorder, according to an initial assessment.
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Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when the Boeing 737-800 jet suddenly plunged from cruising altitude.
Most of the plane appears to have disintegrated upon impact and no survivors have been found, Reuters reported.
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, and aviation authorities warn that their investigation will be very difficult due to the severe damage sustained by the plane.
“We found a black box at the crash site, but it is severely damaged on the outside,” said Mao Yanfeng, head of aircraft investigation at CAAC.
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Weather conditions along Monday’s flight path posed no danger to the plane, and air traffic controllers had maintained communication after its takeoff and before its rapid descent, Mao told reporters.
During its descent, the plane did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers, CAAC previously said.
The plane had met airworthiness standards before takeoff, and all three pilots – one more than normally required on a 737 – were in good health, officials have said.
The captain was hired in January 2018 and had 6,709 hours of total flight experience, while the first and second officers had 31,769 hours and 556 hours, respectively, a China Eastern official said at the briefing.
“As far as we know, the performance of the three pilots had been good and their family life relatively harmonious,” the official said.
In response to the crash, China Eastern has tightened precautions, requiring two senior captains and a senior co-pilot on a three-person crew on some types of aircraft, state-run The Paper reported.
China Eastern and two subsidiaries have grounded their fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
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