China Eastern Airlines Black Box Has Been Found, Authorities: Cockpit Conversation Recorder

The discovery of one of China Eastern Airlines' Boeing 737-800 black boxes. (CGTN screenshot via China Daily)

JAKARTA - A black box of a China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed on Monday in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region was found on Wednesday. In addition, human tissue was found at the crash site.

The head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's aviation safety office Zhu Tao at a press conference at the search and rescue command center in Wuzhou, Guangxi on Wednesday evening said the black box was found below ground level, 20 meters southeast of the point of impact at around 16:30 on Thursday. Wednesday.

According to Zhu, initial inspections at the crash site showed the outside of the black box was badly damaged.

"The data storage unit is intact but damaged. We believe it is the cockpit voice recorder," he said, adding it had sent the black box to Beijing for decoding.

The Boeing 737-800 belonging to China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 carrying 123 passengers and nine crew, left Kunming, Yunnan Province last Monday at 13:11 local time.

The plane was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, at 3:05 p.m. However, Chinese air traffic controllers lost track of the plane over Wuzhou at 2:21 p.m.

"Snippets of the plane's wreckage and some human tissue were found at the crash site near Molang Village, Tengxian County. They have been handed over to the investigation team," Zheng Xi, head of the Guangxi Fire and Rescue Brigade, told the same occasion.

"Heavy rains on Wednesday temporarily affected search and rescue operations," Zheng continued. As of Wednesday evening, no survivors had been found.

At a press conference earlier on Wednesday, Mao Yanfeng, director of the CAAC disaster investigation agency, said the team hopes that by recovering the two flight recorders as soon as possible, they can find out the cause of the crash.

"This type of accident is rarely seen. The plane suddenly started to descend sharply at high speed while sailing," Mao said.

Mao said the Boeing 737-800 had two black boxes, its flight recorder, made by Honeywell in the United States. First, the flight data recorder, located at the rear of the cabin, can record 25 hours of approximately 1,000 flight data parameters, including altitude, speed, direction, and how the crew operates the aircraft.

The other, he said, was the cockpit voice recorder, which was behind the cargo hold. It can record for two to three hours whatever is said in the cockpit as well as ambient sounds.

Mao added, good weather along the route of Flight MU5735. Before the plane begins to plunge, the flight crew maintains normal communication with air traffic controllers.

Meanwhile, the head of the China Eastern Branch in Yunan, Sun Shiying, said the pilot and two co-pilots were in good health, qualifying to fly the plane.

The pilot began manning the Boeing 737 in January 2018. He has 6,709 flight hours. The first co-pilot had 31,769 flight hours and the second had 556 flight hours, Sun said.

"In addition, the performance of the three previous pilots was good and their families were also harmonious. Also, the aircraft met all the maintenance requirements before takeoff," he explained.