Muddy conditions hamper search for wreckage from China Eastern plane crash
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers conduct search and rescue work at the core site of Monday's plane crash in Tengxian County, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Friday, March 25, 2022. (Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP)
BEIJING: Construction excavators dug into a crash site Saturday (Mar 26) in the search for wreckage, remains and the second black box from a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 that nosedived into a mountainside in southern China this week with 132 people on board.
They have found an emergency location transmitter from the plane that had been close to where the second black box - the flight data recorder - had been installed, Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told reporters on Saturday.
The team is also seeking the data module from the flight data recorder itself.
But muddy conditions in the rainy region is hampering the search. Pumps were used to drain water and one excavator stopped working after getting partially stuck, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Workers wearing knee-high rubber boots used shovels and other hand tools to sift through the earthen slopes in a 20m-deep pit left by the plane. Debris and other items were collected in dozens of rectangular, mud-stained plastic containers.
Related:
No survivors have been found, and the cause of the crash remained a mystery. An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said.
Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder on Wednesday but have yet to find the flight data recorder.
Authorities said Saturday that forensic and criminal investigation experts had confirmed the identities of 114 passengers and six crew members, or 120 of the 132 people on the flight.
Flight MU5735 from the city of Kunming in southwestern China was flying at 29,000 feet when it suddenly plunged to the ground, shortly before it would have started its descent to the airport in Guangzhou, a provincial capital and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong on China's southeastern coast.
China Eastern, one of China’s four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their 737-800 aircraft, a total of 223 planes. The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign there was anything wrong.
