© AP
CHINA-CRASHED PLANE
Rugged terrain and rain made it difficult Wednesday to search for clues as to why a China Eastern plane inexplicably fell from the sky and crashed into a forested mountainside a few days ago, presumably killing all 132 people on board. on board.
Under rainy conditions, rescuers used hand tools, drones and sniffer dogs to search the crash site and a debris field that stretches up steep, heavily forested slopes in southern China for the black boxes containing the data. flight and cockpit voice recorders, as well as any human remains.
Videos published by Chinese state media showed small pieces of the plane Boeing 737-800 scattered throughout the area, some in green fields, others in charred areas with bare earth. Mud-stained wallets, bank cards and identity cards have also been recovered.
Investigators said it is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. Flight 5735 began a dizzying descent an hour following takeoff, and the plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds into its fall.
It crashed on Monday near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region. The plane was flying from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, an industrial center not far from Hong Kong on the southeastern coast of China.
An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times following seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply, but got no response, Zhu Tao, director of the Authority’s Aviation Safety Office, told a news conference on Tuesday. of Chinese Civil Aviation.
“So far, the rescue efforts have found no survivors,” Zhu said. “The public security department has taken control of the site.”
