China Eastern Airlines crash: all 132 people on board declared dead
- Rain is increasing hazards at the wreckage site and some plans need to be revised, air safety official says
- Samples of the ruins tested so far show no signs of explosives, fire rescue chief says
Chinese authorities confirmed on Saturday night that all 132 passengers and crew from China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 were killed when their aircraft crashed in southern China.
The announcement from the search and rescue command centre in Wuzhou, near the crash site, was followed by a moment of silence for the dead, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said searchers had found the emergency locator transmitter, a device that sends a continuous radio signal in the event of a crash.
But wet weather at the site continued to impair recovery efforts.
“The rescue and research work was challenged because the impact of the crash and rain increased the risk of hazards [at the site]. We need to refine our digging plan,” Zhu said.
China Eastern crash: the ring of officialdom around victims’ families
China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed in a mountainous forest in Teng county, near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region en route to Guangzhou on Monday afternoon.
Zhu said that by midday Saturday, 478 family members of 74 victims had visited the crash site.
Among the relatives in Wuzhou was the family of 18-year-old Zhang Xu.
The family chanted sutras at a temple and prayed for the young man to be reborn.
“May all those victims free from pain, remove their fears, and reach bliss early,” his uncle said.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that large amounts of debris were found at the crash site on Saturday and the direct point of impact of the aircraft extended 20 metres beneath the surface.
Officials found the crashed plane’s engine gearbox and remnants of the plane’s main landing gear in the core search and rescue area.
Zheng Xi, the commander in chief of the Guangxi Fire Rescue Corps, said 66 samples from the wreckage had been sent to laboratories for analysis and of the 41 pieces tested so far, none showed signs of common organic or inorganic explosives.
But the search continues for the flight data recorder, a device that takes readings on dozens of parameters several times per second.
Mao Yanfeng, director of the CAAC’s accident investigation centre, said on Friday that it was uncertain when the data from the first black box would be downloaded and initially analysed.
Zhang Qihuai, a researcher with China University of Political Science and Law’s Centre for Aviation and Space Law, said each aircraft crash investigation was different and difficult, complicated by the location, position, time, state and cause of each incident and this one was no different.
“[The investigation of] this accident is extremely difficult,” Zhang said.
“If the video circulating on the internet is true, the attitude of the plane hitting the ground was so extreme that it is hard to say if the black boxes could have withstood the impact.”
He said aircraft manufacturers, sellers and operators, as well as civil aviation authorities and governments, would contribute to the investigation.
They would work together to accurately and objectively recreate the circumstances of the crash, using data from the black boxes, the wreckage and other evidence at the scene.
“It is not easy to say how long the final report will take – there are too many factors to take into account,” Zhang said.
“It will take a long time, months to years maybe.
“There will be many reports such as initial, interim and final.”
