The aircraft that provided the link between the Chinese cities of Kunming and Canton had 132 people on board. No survivors were found for now.
Le Monde with AFP
A flight book from the Boeing 737-800 that crashed Monday in southern China with 132 people on board was recovered, announced on Wednesday, March 23 a Chinese Civil Aviation Officer (CAAC).
“A black box from the flight China Eastern MU5735 was found on March 23,” said Liu Lusong, the spokesman for CAAC. The aircraft provided the link between the Chinese cities of Kunming (South-West) and Canton (South). The CAAC was not able, in the immediate future, to specify whether the black box found was that containing the recording of the votes in the cockpit (CVR) or that containing the flight data (FDR).
The MU5735 domestic flight aircraft of China Eastern Airlines crashed Monday on a wooded hill in Wuzhou, in the south of the country. Hundreds of firefighters, military, doctors, volunteers and local politicians are mobilized to find traces of passengers, their personal belongings and the second black box.
A CAAC leader reported Tuesday night that no survivor had been found for now. The hopes are thin, the device exclaimed virtually vertically before embracing.
Worst aircraft in China since 1994
The research was interrupted on Wednesday because of the heavy rainfall that spilled the catastrophe site, making it muddy and dangerous for the rescuers. “Small landslides could happen”, explained a reporter from CCTV public television, who said always feel “a smell of kerosene” on the scene, two days after the catastrophe. “There is a huge pit at the point of impact of the aircraft. The water has accumulated (…) and drainage work will certainly be necessary,” he insisted.
The possible confirmation of the death of the 123 passengers and nine crew members would do the most serious aircraft accident since 1994 in China, where aviation safety is considered very good by the experts. According to CAAC, all people on board were Chinese nationality.
According to the FlightRadar specialized site data, the aircraft brutally stung to the ground before crashing. A behavior considered unusual by the experts. “When the air controller realized the sharp rise in altitude of the plane, he immediately contacted the crew, several times, but did not obtain any response,” said Tuesday Zhu Tao, the director Air safety at CAAC.
The device was not old: in service in China since 2015, it had already carried out nearly 9,000 flights in more than 18,000 hours, he said. According to China Eastern, he had satisfied all the airworthiness requirements. CAAC still ordered a general inspection in the air sector in the next two weeks.