On Monday, flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming, China’s southwestern metropolis, to Guangzhou, China’s port city, when it dropped from cruising altitude and crashed in a densely forested area of Guangxi.
Late Saturday, China confirmed that all 132 passengers and crew members aboard a China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed earlier this week had died.
On Monday, flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming, China’s southwestern metropolis, to Guangzhou, China’s port city, when it dropped from cruising altitude and crashed in a densely forested area of Guangxi.
There was little hope of finding anyone alive. Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), confirmed to reporters on Saturday night that there were no signs of life at the accident scene and that all 123 passengers and 9 crew members had died, according to official media.
The search team had previously stated that DNA from 120 of the passengers on board had been found.
The second black box, or flight data recorder, is still missing.
During an earlier press conference, Zhu Tao, director of the CAAC’s Aviation Safety Office, stated that an emergency location transmitter from the jet had been discovered near where the second black box was fitted.
The data module from the flight data recorder is also being sought by the team.
The cockpit voice recorder, the other black box, was discovered on Wednesday and has been transported to Beijing for expert inspection.
The search team has been excavating for plane pieces both by hand and with machinery in the thick muck.
According to a Guangxi official, no essential chemicals from conventional explosives were found in the accident debris.