The black box from the crashed Chinese Boeing 737 plane carrying 132 passengers, was recovered on Wednesday, 23 March, AFP reported, as officials continue their investigation into the crash that took place on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters, Liu Lusong, a spokesman for China's aviation authority, said that a flight recorder "from China Eastern MU5735 was found", although state media reported that it had been severely damaged.
The Boeing 737-800 has two flight recorders. One is located in the rear passenger cabin, and the other serves as a cockpit voice recorder.
Mao Yanfeng, an official from the civil aviation administration of China, told state media that it was not yet clear which of the two recorders had been found.
Officials Refrain From Declaring All Passengers Dead
Chinese officials have not yet declared all passengers dead, despite the fact that all evidence pointed towards that assertion.
When rescue teams reached the site of the crash in China's Guangxi province, all that was left of the plane was a heap of mangled metal and charred remains.
Data also showed that the plane dropped down from 29,100 ft in just one minute. The speed and angle of the plane crash indicated that the plane crashed with a huge force, diminishing the possibility of finding any survivors.
Meanwhile, rough terrain and rainfall at the crash site hampered the search and rescue mission on Wednesday, while investigators used hand tools, drones and sniffer dogs to comb the crash site and a debris field spread across the forest, Bloomberg reported.
The aircraft was flying at more than 640 miles (966 kilometers) per hour, and at times may have exceeded 700 mph, according to data from Flightradar24, a website that tracks planes.
(With inputs from AFP and Bloomberg.)
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