Officials find 'severely damaged' black box recorder at site of China Eastern Airlines plane crash
A black box recorder from the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed this week was found severely damaged at the crash site in southern China, an aviation official said Wednesday.
The recovered box was one of two aboard the plane, Mao Yanfeng, director of the accident investigation division of the Civil Aviation Authority of China, said at a news conference.
"The exterior appearance of the black box is severely damaged," Mao said. "Once both recorders are found and sent to the lab for analysis, we will be able to know more about the cause of the accident."
HOW IT HAPPENED: China plane, with 132 aboard, had frightening descent
BOEING 737: Here's what we know about the aircraft and its safety
Chinese investigators later Wednesday said they believe the recovered box the cockpit voice recorder. While damaged, the unit is “relatively intact," said Zhu Tao, director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the Civil Aviation Authority of China.
Authorities hope the recorders can provide answers about why the plane dived into the mountainous countryside of Guangxi province Monday, an hour after departure with 132 people on board. The plane crash is China's worst air disaster in a decade.
None of the 123 passengers and nine crew members on board has been found.
Despite the name, "black box" devices are painted bright orange to aid in recovery after a crash. The flight data recorder box captures information on the plane including airspeed, altitude, system performance and direction. The cockpit recorder captures pilot conversation and possible noise from the plane.
At the news conference, officials said the weather was normal during the flight, the plane did not have any problems in its maintenance record, and the crew communicated with air traffic controllers before the plane's sudden descent. Officials said members of the crew were healthy and qualified pilots.
Early Wednesday, heavy rain suspended search efforts, according to state-owned China Daily. More than 600 firefighters and other officials were sent to the crash site to aid in the operation and searched through wet and muddy conditions for the second recorder.
Family members of those on the flight attempted to get close to the crash site Wednesday, but they were escorted away by police and officials, who opened umbrellas to block the view of the area.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, took off from Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan toward Guangzhou, a large city in Guangdong province northwest of Hong Kong, at 1:11 p.m. local time Monday. The flight was scheduled to arrive at 3:05 p.m., but air traffic controllers lost track of the plane around 2:15 p.m., according to China Daily.
The China Eastern Airlines flight traveled at about 30,000 feet before it suddenly dropped around 2:20 p.m., according to data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.com. The airplane was traveling at its cruising altitude speed of 523 mph, and it fell to 7,400 feet before it briefly regained about 1,200 feet in altitude, then dived again. The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after starting to dive, data shows.
Contributing: Ryan Miller, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: China plane crash: Black box recorder found from Boeing 737
