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LU BOAN / XINHUA NEWS / CONTACTOPHOTO
Chinese authorities identified 120 of the 132 crew and deceased passengers of the plane that crashed in the south of the country five days ago.
The chief of the fire services in the region near the ciudad de Wuzhou, Zheng Xi, confirmed the identification of six crew members and 114 passengers. Recovery work continues, according to the Beijing aviation authority.
Chinese authorities have found no trace of explosives in the laboratory investigation of the wreckage of the crashed China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800.
While the flight voice recorder has been recovered, the data recorder is still missing. The voice recorder was damaged but relatively complete, according to information published by the Chinese international state newspaper, ‘Global Times’.
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An emergency locator transmitter (ELT) has also been recovered, according to Zhu Tao, director of the aviation security bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Inside the plane, the ELT position was close to that of the second black box yet to be found, Zhu added.
The accident, in which the plane rapidly descended from an altitude of more than 8,000 meters, is considered extremely unusual. The plane appeared to correct its course briefly during descent, but then crashed into a forest.
According to authorities, repeated attempts were made to contact the crew, with no response. About three minutes after the start of the descent, the signal disappeared. Flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou was carrying 9 crew members and 123 passengers.