More debris, personal items, body remains found at crash site

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Hundreds of pieces of aircraft debris, personal items belonging to passengers and human body remains have been found on Thursday in the mountains of south China where the ill-fated China Eastern Flight 5735 crashed on Monday.

Rescuers believe they have zeroed in on the main crash site after finding most of the aircraft debris scattered in a 30-meter-wide radius, according to Zhu Tao, director of the safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Some debris was found about 20 meters deep underground.

The debris includes the remnants of engine blades and turbine, the hanging bracket of the engines, the left and right tail wings, aileron and part of the wing with a winglet. Rescuers have also found the escape ropes, crew manuals and certificates of the pilots in the cockpit, Zhu said.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was en route from Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province to Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province when it crashed in Tengxian County of Wuzhou City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday afternoon. Flight MU5735 had 123 passengers on board. The crew included three pilots, five flight attendants and one security guard.

A total of 21 pieces belonging to passengers, 183 aircraft debris and some human remains had been found by 4pm Thursday, said Zheng Xi, head of the Guangxi firefighting and rescue team. They've been handed over to the investigation team.

A 1.3-meter-long and 10-centimeter-wide debris was found in farmland about 10 kilometers away from the crash area, prompting the rescuers to expand the search area by 1.5 times, Zheng said.

A total of 1,618 rescuers, including firefighters, soldiers and police officers, have taken part in the search-and-rescue mission with safety ropes as well as life and metal detectors. Over 700 villagers living in 266 villages along the route of the aircraft have been interviewed.

The cockpit voice recorder of the Boeing 737-800 was sent to the decoding lab in Beijing last night. Data downloading and analyzing are ongoing, Zhu said.

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CVR might be broken

He said there was a possibility that the storage cell of the recorder could have been damaged.

The discovery of the cockpit voice recorder gives hope that the flying data recorder could be found soon because both of them were located at the back of the plane, Zhu said.

He said the current primary tasks include looking for passengers and crews of the ill-fated plane, protecting the accident site and collecting evidence.

Following that, the CAAC will invite related parties, such as the US National Transportation Safety Board, to help with investigations as per civil aviation regulations, Zhu said.

Replying to an online claim that China Eastern had repaired the pickle fork, a component between wing and fuselage, of the crashed Boeing, Liu Xiaodong, director of the publicity department of the carrier, said the plane had flown 8,986 flights in 6.8 years. The maintenance requirement on the component is done after reaching 22,600 flights.

Dozens of older Boeing 737 planes were grounded worldwide in late 2019 due to cracks in the pickle fork. Liu said China Eastern's Yunnan branch had one such aircraft and it was retired.

A total of 305 family members of 56 passengers on board the plane have been accommodated in the Wuzhou City of Guangxi. China Eastern has dispatched 161 assistants to offer support and condolence, Liu said.

He added over 200 family members have visited the accident site.

China Eastern has grounded all its 233 Boeing 737-800s after the accident. Liu said the planes are under airworthiness inspection. The carrier has also launched an overhaul of its fleet and employees to ensure flying safety.

China Eastern had also arranged a team of 800 counselors to offer psychological counseling to its crew.