Desk Report
Publish: 24 Mar 2022, 10:28 am
Recovery workers found the cockpit recorder and some human remains amid wet weather on Wednesday || Photo: BBC
Recovery teams have found human remains at the crash site of
the China Eastern jet which plunged into mountains this week, say state media.
Authorities have yet to declare the number of victims, but
there has been no sign so far that any of the 132 people onboard had survived.
Investigators still do not know why the plane suddenly
entered a near-vertical dive in southern China on Monday.
But the recovery of the intact cockpit voice recorder is
hoped to shed clues.
The black box was found damaged on the outside but its
internal records appeared to be fine, officials said. It has been sent to Beijing
for its data to be analysed.
Search teams found the first of the crucial black boxes in
difficult circumstances on Wednesday.
Heavy rains have flooded the steep and rugged landscape of
the crash site in Wuzhou, making efforts harder for hundreds of rescuers and
volunteers, who have so far also found scattered plane debris and the charred
remains of personal belongings.
On Wednesday, dozens of family members of those onboard the
flight began to arrive at the scene. Escorted by officials and supporters, many
kept their heads bowed as they passed gathered media but some spoke briefly to
journalists about their loss.
One man told Reuters his nephew had been a passenger on the
flight. He and his son had driven five hours from neighbouring Shenzhen
province in the hopes of being able to find their relative alive.
"I plan to stay until the matter is sorted and I can
take his ashes back. But this depends on the work of authorities.
"I hope the country can thoroughly investigate this
matter and find out whether it is the manufacturer's fault or a maintenance
problem."
The crash of the passenger plane this week - which had been
on a short domestic flight from Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast- has shocked
and devastated China. The country has had a strong air safety record over the
past three decades.
President Xi Jinping swiftly ordered a full-scale
investigation into the tragedy, dispatching Vice Premier Liu He and hundreds of
personnel to the rural hillside region in Guangxi province.
But none of the knowledge released so far about the flight
indicates any technical problems or anything amiss with environmental factors.
At a press conference on Wednesday, aviation officials said
there hadn't been any weather or other hazards endured by the flight on its
route path. China Eastern said the Boeing 737-800 plane, less than seven years
old, had also passed all pre-flight checks.
There had been three pilots, China Eastern officials
disclosed. The captain had 6,709 hours flying experience, and the first and
second officers had 31,769 hours and 556 hours respectively.
"From what we know, the performance of the three pilots
had been good and their family life relatively harmonious," the airline
representative said.
Air traffic control had also been in regular communication
with the pilots on board right until it entered its near nose-dive descent from
a cruising height.
Flight tracking data showed the plane plummeted thousands of
metres in minutes.
According to FlightRadar24, the plane was cruising at an
altitude of 29,100ft (about 9,000m), but two minutes and 15 seconds later it
was recorded at 9,075ft. The last sourced information on the flight showed it
ended at 14:22 local time, at an altitude of 3,225ft.
Investigators are expected to look at several possible
causes, including deliberate action, pilot error, or technical issues such as a
structural failure or mid-air collision.
China investigators have also invited US aviation experts to
join in the investigation - as the Boeing plane was manufactured in the US. The
invite has been welcomed by the Biden administration.
But US officials said they weren't sure if they would send
over a team yet due to China's strict Covid quarantine requirements for
incoming visitors.
In the meantime, China's aviation officials are carrying out
a two-week safety audit of all planes while China Eastern and its two
subsidiaries have grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800s as an emergency precaution.
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