Chinese teams on Wednesday found one of two black boxes from a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed this week in forested mountains with 132 people on board, the country’s aviation regulator said.
The device was severely damaged and it was not immediately clear whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told a news conference.
Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to the coast of Guangzhou on Monday when the Boeing 737-800 suddenly lost cruising altitude just as it should have started its flight. descent – before landing.
Most of the jet appears to have disintegrated on impact and no survivors were found.
The cause of the accident has not yet been determined, aviation authorities warn that the investigation would be very difficult due to the serious damage to the aircraft.
“We found a black box at the scene, but this black box was severely damaged outside, so the investigation team on the front line is still checking to see if it is the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder,” he said. Mao Yanfeng, head of aircraft investigation at CAAC.
The weather along the flight path on Monday posed no danger to the aircraft, and air controllers maintained communication with it after takeoff and before its rapid descent, Mao told the news conference.
According to the CAAC, during the descent, the plane did not respond to repeated calls from air controllers.
The jet met airworthiness standards before takeoff, and the three pilots — one more than normally required on a 737 — were in good health, officials 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.
“As far as we know, the performance of the three drivers was good and the family life relatively harmonious”, said the official.
In response to the accident, China Eastern tightened precautions, requiring two senior captains and a senior co-pilot in a three-person crew on some aircraft types, the state-backed newspaper The Paper reported.
China Eastern and two subsidiaries grounded their fleet of more than 200 Boeing BA.N 737-800 jets.
China has made great strides in improving air safety standards over the past two decades, and Monday’s disaster was the first major accident in twelve years.
Source: CNN Brasil
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