The second recorder containing data from the flight that crashed in China was recovered on Sunday and could help solve the mystery of the plane’s dizzying fall within minutes. The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800, which linked the Chinese cities of Kunming (southwest) and Guangzhou (south), had disintegrated on Monday on a wooded hill in Wuzhou (south), in the province of Guangxi.
“The second black box of China Eastern flight MU5735 was found on March 27,” the China News Agency said on Sunday, quoting the relief operations command center. This recorder contains flight data such as speed, altitude and heading. A first flight recorder, which contains conversations in the cockpit, was found on Wednesday and sent to Beijing to be decoded. Its analysis should still take several days.
The search continues this Sunday
The causes of the disaster, which killed all 123 passengers and nine crew members, are not yet known. All the people on board were of Chinese nationality.
Public broadcaster CCTV broadcast footage of rescuers recovering the orange-colored cylinder covered in some soil, which was discovered 1.5m deep at the roots of a tree.
The two black boxes of the plane now found, the investigators should obtain within a few days or weeks the first elements of response on the causes of the accident.
After confirming the identities of the vast majority of the victims through DNA tests, the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) announced on Saturday evening that all of the people on board the aircraft had died.
No suspicion on the pilot and his co-pilot
Hundreds of rescuers and investigators, some dressed in full white protective suits, continued their search on Sunday at the scene of the tragedy. On this sloping and earthy hill surrounded by dense vegetation, helped by orange or yellow colored diggers, they recovered debris from the plane, human remains and any element that could be used for the investigation.
According to the specialized site FlightRadar24, the device had lost in just one minute nearly 21,250 feet (6,477 m).
VIDEO. China: plane wreckage found after crash
So far, no suspicion has been cast on the captain and his two co-pilots, who had accumulated 6,709, 31,769 and 556 flight hours respectively, China Eastern said. Based on a preliminary investigation, the service records of these pilots were “very good” and their family situations were “harmonious”, the airline said.