China declares all 132 passengers from China Eastern Airlines crash dead
Beijing, March 26: Chinese authorities on Saturday confirmed that all 132 passengers and crew on a China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed in Southern China this week had died.
On Monday, flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming, China's southwestern city, to Guangzhou, China's port city, when it plummeted from cruising altitude and crashed in a densely forested area of Guangxi.
Witnessing the severe condition of China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737, there was little hope of finding any survivors. Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), confirmed to reporters on Saturday night that there were no signs of life at the accident scene and that all 123 passengers and 9 crew members had died, according to state media.
On Tuesday, Chinese aviation authorities said that no survivors from a crashed plane had been found. Sun Shiying, chairman of China Eastern Airlines Yunnan branch, said during a news briefing Tuesday night, "No survivors have been found so far in Monday's plane crash," according to Xinhua.
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The search team had previously stated that DNA from 120 of the passengers on board had been identified. Meanwhile, the second black box or flight data recorder is still missing.
During an earlier press conference, Zhu Tao, director of the CAAC's Aviation Safety Office, stated that an emergency location transmitter from the plane had been found near where the second black box was fitted.
The cockpit voice recorder, the other black box, was discovered on Wednesday and has been sent to Beijing for expert examination. The search team has been searching for plane parts both by hand and with machinery. According to a Guangxi official, no key compounds from common explosives were found in the crash debris.
The uncovered remains and belongings of the victims were carefully preserved by civil affairs authorities and teams were providing counselling to the victims' relatives.
By midday, Saturday, 478 family members of the 74 victims had visited the crash site, according to Zhu.
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-PTC News
