Authorities denied rumors that the MU5735 flight co-pilot was to blame for the crash, said an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) at a news conference on Monday, adding that those who spread rumors would be held accountable.

Wu Shijie, deputy director of the CAAC's safety office, also refuted other rumors, such as the data of the black boxes are out, and the CAAC'S safety office issued an emergency notice requiring flight personnel onboard a flight should receive aviation doctor's mental health monitoring.

"The false information, which was issued in the name of government institutions, has seriously misled the public and interfered with the investigation, and has been suspected of breaking the laws," said Wu, adding, "those who spread rumors would be held legally responsible."

The investigation of the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crash is underway, and relevant information will be disclosed in due course, Wu said.

Referring to the fact that the flight MU5735 crash has stressed out and affected some young flight attendants, Wu said that the CAAC has coordinated with airlines to help pilots, flight attendants and safety officers to deal with their stress. The effort will ensure the psychological stability of employees and also flight security.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed into a mountainous area in Tengxian County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at 2:38 p.m. on March 21, killing all 132 people on board - 123 passengers and nine crew members.

Read more: 

Explainer: How will flight MU5735 crash investigation be carried out?

Experts: What the black box can tell you about MU5735's vertical crash

A team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board arrived in China on Saturday to help investigate the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 passenger plane on March 21, reported CAAC News, a publication under the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed into a mountainous area in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, killing all 132 people on board, which was China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years.

According to the requirements of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the U.S., which is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the country that designed and manufactured the Boeing 737-800 aircraft, can participate in the investigation of the accident, the CAAC News report said.

The U.S. team consists of seven authorized representatives and technical advisors. Their major responsibility is to provide technical support in investigating the cause of the accident from the perspective of the designer and manufacturer of the plane, according to the report.

On the day of the plane crash, the CAAC notified the ICAO and the NTSB about the basic information of the accident as per relevant procedures, and the NTSB expressed willingness to provide technical support to the investigation.

The two sides have been in close contact on the specific arrangements for the U.S. personnel to come to China.

The NTSB said on its Twitter account that "investigators will limit interactions with those outside of investigation similar to safety protocols at Beijing Olympics, which will allow them to begin work immediately without a quarantine."

Read more: What you need to know about the crashed Boeing 737-800

A preliminary investigation report on the China Eastern Airlines plane crash is expected to be completed within 30 days of the incident, according to a news briefing on Thursday.

The core search and rescue operation following the crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 has been completed, Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), told a press briefing on Thursday.

Over 40,000 pieces of the jetliner's wreckage had been recovered by Wednesday, said Zhu, adding that "most of the wreckage pieces have been transferred to a storage site for sorting and further examination."

The total search area has reached nearly 10 million square meters, Zhu added.

The large-scale search and rescue operation involved 216 fire trucks and 16 drones.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed into a mountainous area in Tengxian County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, at 2:38 p.m. on March 21, killing all 132 people on board - 123 passengers and nine crew members.

Zhu said both flight recorders, or black boxes, of the crashed plane are being decoded, and preliminary analysis is being carried out after the crash site, debris distribution and impact marks have been located and photographed.

Aviation experts are also studying and judging the possible trajectory, angle and impact force of the aircraft when hitting the ground, Zhu added.

"By analyzing the data of air traffic control's radar automation system, we're trying to restore the real flight process before the crash," he said, adding that information on the flight's passengers, luggage, cargo and mail are also being examined.

According to international civil aviation agreements, a preliminary report on the accident will be completed within 30 days after the crash. "After all the investigations are concluded, a full report will be made public," said Zhu.

(With input from Xinhua)

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it will set up an expert group to carry out safety supervision in north and southwest China from March 29 to 31.

The CAAC has launched a wide-range industry safety inspection following the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crash in which 132 people died.

All 132 victims of the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crash have been identified through DNA testing, a civil aviation official said at a news conference on Monday.

The search team will now focus entirely on identifying victims' belongings and recovering the airplane's wreckage.

The decoding analysis for the recovered two black boxes is underway, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. 

Rescuers have found 36,001 plane wreckage pieces across a search area of 370,000 square meters, Zhu said.

Over 1,100 counselors and medical professionals reached out to victims' family members. 

(Cover: Search and rescue operations for crashed flight MU5735 are underway, Tengxian County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 24. /CFP)

A total of 33,777 pieces of wreckage and debris have been recovered from the site where a China Eastern Airlines plane crashed on March 21 in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, an official told a press briefing on Sunday.

China Eastern Airlines said it has started the insurance claims process for the families of ill-fated flight MU5735 victims.

The airline has organized a team to take care of the insurance claims and will develop compensation plans based on communication with families, the airline said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon.

China's top insurance regulator on Tuesday called on all insurers to make all-out efforts to help grieving families with their insurance claims.

Flight MU5735 crashed on Monday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on its way from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou. All 132 people aboard the plane are confirmed dead.

The second black box's data storage unit was appeared relatively intact, and sent to a professional decoding laboratory on Sunday, an aviation official told a press briefing.

A ceremony was held on Sunday to mourn the victims of the China Eastern Airlines jetliner crash at the crash site in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Flight MU5735 crashed on March 21, killing all 132 passengers and crew on board. The mourning event began at 14:00 BJT.

The staff at national emergency response headquarters for the incident as well as search and rescue personnel stood solemnly in the direction of the ill-fated aircraft and observed three minutes of silence to express condolences to the victims.

Other mourning activities at the search and rescue sites, funeral homes and other places were also carried out by family members of the victims with the assistance of local government staff and working groups.

Some staffers were assigned to attend to the relatives before the ceremony.

"At least two people are assigned to take care of each passenger's relatives. And all of us are there for them 24 hours a day, responding to whatever they need. Along with staff members, there are also medical professionals, and psychotherapists who are also on duty 24 hours a day," Zhao Ting, one of the staffers, told CGTN.

A week has passed since the plane crash on March 21, and Zhao said most of the family members are gradually coming to terms with the incident.

Zhao has been attending to the families since the early hours after the crash. She said there has been a noticeable shift in their concerns since then.  

"When they first arrived at the hotels, the thing they frequently told us to help was to visit the crash site. And we arranged some visits for them in the past two days, so their demands in this regard are no longer strong. Their current questions are more centered on legal action and compensation," she added.

Zhao said the biggest challenge for her was the feeling that even her best efforts will not be enough to ease the pain felt by family members.

Sunday's ceremony was held after the second black box was found earlier in the day.

Investigation into the cause of the incident is underway as the search mission continues.

Read more:

MU5735 crash: Rescue work continues despite finding no survivors so far

Explainer: How will flight MU5735 crash investigation be carried out?

(Cao Chufeng contributed to the report.)

(Cover: A ceremony is held to mourn the victims of the China Eastern Airlines jetliner crash, at the crash site in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 27, 2022. /CMG)

The second black box from China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 was found 40 meters southeast from the crash site, buried under 1.5 meters of soil, CMG reported. Check out the video to see how search and rescue workers clean the box.

The second black box from China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 was found 40 meters southeast from the crash site and buried 1.5 meters below the ground surface, CMG reported.

The second black box from crashed China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 has been recovered, CMG reported on Sunday. The video shows where the black box was discovered.

The second black box from crashed China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 has been recovered, CMG reported on Sunday.

The second black box from crashed China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 has been recovered, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Sunday.

The black box was found 40 meters and 5 degrees southeast from the crash site, 1.5 meters below the surface, according to CMG reporters.

Further information is expected to be revealed at a press conference later on Sunday.

Flight MU5735, scheduled to fly from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed on Monday afternoon in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. All 132 people on board died, an official in charge of the rescue work confirmed in a briefing on Saturday.

The announcement was made after six days of detailed searching around the crash site and checking of surveillance cameras, radars and other devices. As of Saturday afternoon, the identities of 120 victims have been confirmed through DNA testing. Special task forces have been assigned to help the grieving family members of the lost passengers.

"We are deeply saddened by the accident. We mourn the loss of 132 lives and express our deep sympathy to the bereaved families," said Hu Zhenjiang, deputy commander of the search and rescue headquarters and deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The first black box found at the crash site on Wednesday, has been sent to Beijing, where efforts are underway to extract data it collected. A CAAC official said on Friday that it's too early to say when the voice data can be downloaded. A flight expert said decoding the data will need an additional 10 to 15 days, and data analysis will take even more time.

A preliminary investigation report will be submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization within 30 days, head of the CAAC's aviation accident investigation center Mao Yanfeng said on Friday.

Read more:

China plane crash: All 132 people on board are confirmed dead

MU5735 crash: Rescue work continues despite finding no survivors so far

All 132 people on board the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed Monday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are dead, an official announced Saturday.

The national emergency response headquarters for the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 aircraft accident on March 21 made the announcement at a press conference late Saturday night after six days of all-out search and rescue efforts.

China has launched an investigation into its first deadly aviation accident since 2010, the crash of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, which nosedived from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 9,075 feet in just two minutes and 15 seconds, with 132 people on board, in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 21.

Before the crash, Chinese airlines had a safety flight record of over 100 million continuous hours over 4,000 days, one of the world's best over that period, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). 

When it comes to the investigation, international standards will only govern some aspects as each country takes its own practical management path.

For flight MU5735, China will lead the investigation as the crash occurred in its territory. The U.S. has the right to participate as the Boeing 737-800 plane was designed and manufactured there.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that Chinese authorities had invited the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to take part in the probe, adding that he was very encouraged by the invitation to be on the ground in China. The NTSB, however, later said it had not yet determined if investigators would travel to China, citing visa and quarantine requirements.

China's investigation team

For the search and rescue response to the flight crash, China's State Council has set up an investigation team led by the CAAC and the country's Ministry of Emergency Management with participation by multiple other ministries.

The aviation safety office of CAAC, which has an accident investigation department, is leading the technical work.

The State Council guides on-site rescue, aftermath management and investigation of the crash cause by giving direct political oversight.

Such high-level involvement signifies the government is taking the situation seriously, said Zheng Lei, chair of the Aviation Department at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology.

When will China release the results?

Under international standards, a preliminary report into an accident needs to be lodged with the UN aviation agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), within 30 days.

The initial reports are more about laying out the information known to date from maintenance records, air traffic control recordings and the black boxes, rather than reporting the cause of the crash.

Mao Yanfeng, a CAAC official, told reporters on March 25 that China's investigation team will follow international and Chinese rules in submitting the 30-day report to ICAO but did not say whether it would be made public.

A final report is usually due within a year, according to ICAO guidelines, though sometimes it may take longer than that. 

What has been found so far?

Over 7,000 people, 200 vehicles, five helicopters, and other equipment have been deployed in the search and rescue since the MU5735 crash on March 21, although no survivors have been found so far, CAAC's Zhu Tao said Friday.

As of 3 p.m. on Friday, 101 pieces of items belonging to the passengers have been discovered, and 18 fingerprint samples extracted. Local police said they were trying to examine the DNA of the remains to identify the victims. 

The black box recovered from the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 is believed to be the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), an aviation official told a press briefing on Wednesday night. Work to extract data from the first black box is still underway in the capital, Beijing. 

One CAAC official said it's too early to say when the voice data can be downloaded, and a flight expert said decoding the data will take an additional 10 to 15 days, and data analysis even longer.

The search for the other black box is ongoing. More orange pieces were found at the core search area that experts later verified are parts of the black box. 

Read More:

CGTN liveblog on China plane crash

The identities of 120 people aboard the crashed China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 have been confirmed, including 114 passengers and six crew members, an official said at a press conference on Saturday.

Rescuers have found the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) installed near the second black box of the crashed Chinese passenger plane, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Speaking at a press conference, the official said no survivors were located so far, nor the second black box.

The search continues for the second black box and possible survivors of the China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. Search terms have excavated the surface of the crash site and rescuers are combing the area. CGTN's reporter He Weiwei is at the crash site with the latest.

Chinese authorities said on Friday that they had never given up hope on finding possible survivors from the China Eastern Airlines flight which crashed on Monday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Shallow surface excavation has started at the core search area of the crash site. Rescuers are also combing the mountainous area for the second black box, following the recovery of the first one on Wednesday.

The search for those aboard the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jetliner and its second black box continued on Friday, following its crash in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. More orange pieces were found at the core search area of flight MU5735's crash site. All search team members were seen now in protective suites given a bigger hygiene risk caused by human decomposition due to a temperature rise.

The crew members of the crashed China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 didn't send out emergency codes before the tragedy, according to a press conference on Friday.

Rescue efforts are still ongoing, although no survivors have been found so far following the crash of a China Eastern Airlines flight, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), on Friday.

Over 7,000 people, 200 vehicles, five helicopters, and other equipment have been deployed in the search and rescue since the MU5735 crash on Monday, Zhu said in a press conference.

Though heavy rains and a landslide introduced hurdles to their work, the rescuers have never given up looking for survivors.

The search for the other black box is also underway. While a few orange-colored objects were found, experts later verified that they are parts of the black box.

Work to extract data from the first box is still underway. A CAAC official said it's too early to say when the voice data can be downloaded. A flight expert said decoding the data will need an additional 10 to 15 days, and data analysis will take even more time.

The CAAC promised to submit the initial investigation report to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

As of 3 p.m. on Friday, 101 pieces of items belonging to the passengers have been discovered, and 18 fingerprint samples were extracted. Local police said they were trying to identify the passengers through biology characteristics analysis and DNS comparing.

The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft carrying 132 people crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a mountainous area of Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, 531 family members of 92 missing passengers had arrived in Wuzhou.

The officials also clarified some social media misinformation around the crash. Some posts said the crashed plane sent out code 7500 – which means the plane was hijacked – before losing contact. A manager from China Eastern Airlines said that the passenger plane didn't send out any code during the time.

Another airplane in China was met with a mechanical issue on Friday. Fortunately, the cargo plane, belonging to the Sichuan Airlines, landed safely in Chongqing, where it originally departed.

(Cover: Rescuers work at the crash site of Flight MU5735 on Friday in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. /CFP)

One of the black boxes of the crashed China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 has been retrieved. Earlier, our reporter You Yang talked to some senior aircraft engineers about the functions of the black boxes, as well as the roles they play during air crash investigations.

A rescue team is still searching for the second black box, according to the National Emergency Response Headquarters of the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crash.

The search area has been expanded further, and excavation work has started.

Two pieces of orange-colored wreckage were found in the core area of the rescue work. 

One of the two black boxes of China Eastern Airline's flight MU5735, the cockpit voice recorder, has been retrieved. It was found some 20 meters away from the main impact area. Mountainous terrain and heavy rain have increased the difficulty of the search operation. Local support teams have built a 500-meter path from the main road to improve access to the crash site. CGTN reporter He Weiwei shares details.

Rescuers have identified the crash site of flight MU5735, and major parts of the aircraft's wreckage were found within a 30-meter radius range, the local authorities said at a press conference on Thursday.

On Monday afternoon, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. 

The first black box of China Eastern Airlines' crashed MU5735 passenger jet is under analysis in Beijing, officials said on Thursday. 

"We still cannot rule out the possibility that the storage parts of the black box have broken," an official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told reporters at a press conference.

The first black box, or the cockpit voice recorder, was found some 20 meters away from the main impact area on Wednesday afternoon and was transferred to Beijing in the evening. Experts are now trying to extract and decrypt the data in the box.

According to an analyst, the process could take anywhere between a few days to as long as half a year.

The black boxes are data storage devices that save critical data of planes for analysis. One box contains voices recorded in the cockpit, while the other provides critical parameters for experts to understand what happened to the plane.

Read more: Experts: What black box can tell you about vertical crash of MU5735

Rescuers are still searching for the other black box around the crash site. They have also found major parts of the destroyed aircraft within a 30-meter radius, the local authority said.

The wreckage could be the engine of the crashed plane, according to a China Media Group reporter.

Pickle fork repair 'unrelated' to crash

Not long after the crash, many people on social media found a report saying China Eastern Airlines repaired a part in Boeing 737-800 model called "pickle fork," which they said may have led to the crash.

But aviation officials said it's not related because the crashed plane was not included in the repair.

"Only one plane from China Eastern Airlines was included, which was retired back in September 2020," said Liu Xiaodong, a manager of the company.

Liu also told media that the company didn't reduce funds for repair after the onset of the pandemic. "Instead, there was a 12-percent increase in spending on repairs in 2021 compared to that of 2019," he said.

Read more: What you need to know about the crashed Boeing 737-800

China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 9,075 feet in just two minutes and 15 seconds, crashing into a mountainous area in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday, and two days later one of its two black boxes was retrieved.

What happened to the plane? Will the black box provide answers? CGTN asked experts to explain the finding of the black box. 

One retrieved black box believed to be the cockpit voice recorder

The black box recovered from the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 is believed to be the cockpit voice recorder, an aviation official told a press briefing on Wednesday night.

The exterior of the black box has been severely damaged, but its data storage unit is relatively complete despite the damage, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Zhu Tao told reporters. The device is being sent to Beijing for decoding.

Mark Weiss, a retired American Airlines captain and President of Weiss Consulting Group, told CGTN that the Boeing 737-800 aircraft is one of the most popular models in the Boeing family which is different from the banned Boeing 737 MAX.

Boeing 737-800 aircraft are equipped with two flight recorders in high-visibility orange color produced by the U.S. company Honeywell. The two can record flight data and cockpit audio respectively, withstanding high shock and high temperatures as well as seawater immersion.

Weiss said one of them is a cockpit voice recorder (CVR), installed at the rear of the cargo compartment, and it starts recording when the aircraft is powered on and stops when it is powered off. The CVR is capable of recording two to three hours of digital audio.

The other one is a flight data recorder (FDR), installed at the rear of the cabin, and it begins recording when the engine is started and stops when the engine is stopped. With a total recording time of around 25 hours, FDR records about 1,000 parameters, including altitude, speed, angles and crew operations.

Vertical crash unusual, black boxes crucial to find out why

Professor Hu Xiaobing of the School of Safety Science and Engineering of the Civil Aviation University of China told CGTN that this crash was very unusual as it was vertical. It seems to him, for some reason unknown yet, that the pilots may have become unconscious during the steep descent.

According to historical experience, there are many possible causes that could lead an airplane to descend steeply, such as technical failures like engine malfunction, airplane body structure damage, or even a bird strike. Sometimes human factors such as pilot error or a terrorist attack could also cause an airplane crash.

However, Hu pointed out that it's too early to comment on the cause of this tragedy, and the public should wait for the official investigation result which will largely rely on the black boxes.

If there is any technical failure causing the crash, the FDR could usually provide some details because it records important data about on-board equipment, said the professor.

If there is any human factor causing the crash, the CVR could give some clues because it records cockpit conversations. Therefore, black boxes are crucial for the investigation.

This is why, Hu stressed, the black boxes are strongly built to survive airplane crashes. For example, they can survive a 500 kilometers per hour airplane crash, tolerate temperatures up to 1,100 degrees Celsius, as well as half an hour of water pressure about 6,000 meters underwater.

Weiss echoed that the CVR retrieved should have recorded every single sound of the area as there were numerous microphones turned on once the engine started. The CVR is going to show a lot of information, and once we put information about the two black boxes together it's going to give the whole picture of what had happened in the airplane.

Investigation underway with experts on-site

So far, no survivors have been found among 123 passengers and nine crew members aboard the ill-fated plane. 

About 20 civil aviation technical experts on Wednesday arrived at the plane crash site to carry out an investigation into the crash.  

Mao Yanfeng, head of the aviation accident investigation center of the CAAC, told at a news briefing on Wednesday that the weather was normal and there were no hazardous weather conditions when the jetliner crashed.

According to the air/ground communication records between the aircrew and air traffic controllers, they had maintained normal communication since the plane took off from Kunming until it suddenly dived to crash en route to its destination, Mao added.

The Boeing 737 aircraft was delivered to China Eastern Airlines on June 22, 2015. Before its take-off on Monday, it met maintenance release standards and airworthiness requirements, according to Sun Shiying, the chairman of China Eastern Airlines' Yunnan branch. 

All three pilots, including one captain and two co-pilots, had flight licenses and health certificates within the validity period, with good health and complete flight experience, also said Sun, adding that "from what we know at present, their families were in harmony."

Before the crash, China's airlines had marked a safety flight record of over 100 million continuous hours over 4,000 days, according to the CAAC.

This was the best safety performance in the history of China's civil aviation industry, one of the world's best over that period, CAAC's Zhu Tao said, noting that the quality of safety operation of China's airlines had been continuously improved.

(CGTN reporters Xia Cheng and Gasthoori Manickam, and video editors Zhang Chunnan, Li Yahui, Mu Xile and Wu Chutian contributed to this story.)

Read More:

Explainer: How will flight MU5735 crash investigation be carried out?

Expert: 10 to 15 days needed to decode black box of crashed plane

CGTN liveblog on China plane crash

Rescuers have intensified efforts to search for the second black box of the plane that crashed with 132 people on board in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the China Media Group reported on Thursday, adding that the personnel on site have found wreckage which could be the plane's engine.

Rescuers have expanded the search area and found some plane wreckage and personal belongings of passengers on board.

Teams have been braving the rain to clear landslide debris and waterlogging while continuing the search and rescue work. It has been raining since Wednesday evening at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft in a mountainous area of Tengxian County.

By 11 a.m. Thursday, rescuers had cleared landslide debris, but the rain-soaked soil continued to make travel on foot difficult. They laid bamboo frames on the ground to facilitate rescue work.

In the core area of the crash site, excavators and other equipment are ready to resume work. At 8 a.m. on the same day, the regional meteorological bureau forecast small to moderate rainfall in Tengxian over the next 12 hours.

A day before, rescuers said they had found one of the two black boxes of the plane.

No survivors have been found so far of the 123 passengers and nine crew members who were on the plane that crashed on Monday.

(With input from agencies)

The wreckage found at the crash site could be China Eastern plane's engine, according to a CMG reporter on Thursday.

Video shows the recovery of one of the two black boxes from the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed into a mountain in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 21. The box's exterior is severely damaged, but its data storage unit is relatively intact, according to the head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The official said that investigators will continue to search for the flight data recorder that would provide a more complete picture of what had caused the crash. 

The aircraft experienced two high-speed dives almost vertically. How rare is this in plane crash accidents? What can the causes be? Retired American Airlines captain Mark Weiss explains.

Rescuers struggled to continue their search operations due to bad weather following the China Eastern Airlines plane crash. The rescuers' work was temporarily suspended due to heavy rain on March 23. The main task now is still to find survivors and the other black box. 

Parts of the aircraft wreckage and human tissue fragments were found at the scene, officials said at a press conference on Wednesday night. 

By 19:00 Wednesday Beijing time, approximately 300 rescuers had searched the 46,000-square-meter forest area at the crash site, an official said.

The plane debris and human remains that were discovered have been handed over to the accident investigation team.

He also mentioned that the heavily forested mountain slopes made rescue work difficult.

The black box of crashed China Eastern Airlines flight recovered on Wednesday was preliminarily identified as a Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and it has been sent to Beijing for decoding.

Footage shows the crashed  China Eastern Airlines jet appears to dive to the ground at a near-vertical angle. What does that tell us? And how difficult is the investigation, considering the fact that the crash site is surrounded on three sides by mountains? CGTN Global Watch talked to Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace knowledge magazine. He said that the case is very rare in history, which means that the cause will be complex and the investigation will be very difficult.

- Weather normal at time of crash

- China Eastern jet met industry safety standards prior to takeoff

- Crew members were in good health

- One of two black boxes is severely damaged

One of the black boxes of the crashed MU5735 flight has been found at the scene. 

On March 22, Guilin City's fire and rescue department received orders and arrived at the core area of the MU5735 crash site at 16:40 with the task of searching for the plane's black box.

One of the black boxes of the crashed China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 has been retrieved, an official said at a press conference on Wednesday.

There were two black boxes on the plane, recording flight data and cockpit audio respectively and one of them has been found, according to the official. 

He added that the black box was severely damaged, so it is unclear for now what kind of information it carries.

On the day of the air crash, there were no reports of dangerous weather on the route and the crew kept normal communication with air controllers before its sudden descent, Sun Shiying, Chairman of China Eastern Airlines Yunnan Co., Ltd., said at the press conference.

The three pilots of the aircrew were all in good health with qualified licenses and experience, Sun said, also noting that they performed well at work and had harmonious families. 

Two black boxes

Unlike the nickname of black boxes, the recorders are in high-visibility orange. These crash-survivable devices can withstand high shock, high temperatures and seawater immersion.

Boeing 737-800 aircraft are equipped with two flight recorders produced by the U.S. company Honeywell, the official said.

One of them is a flight data recorder (FDR), which is installed at the rear of the cabin and begins recording when the engine is started, and stops when the engine is stopped. With a total recording time of around 25 hours, FDR records about 1,000 parameters, including altitude, speed, angles and crew operations.

The other is a cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which is installed at the rear of the cargo compartment and starts recording when the aircraft is powered on and stops when it is powered off.

The CVR is capable of two to three hours of digital audio.

Experts arrive at plane crash site

About 20 civil aviation technical experts on Wednesday arrived at the site of Monday's plane crash to carry out an investigation into the tragedy, Xinhua reported. 

"We'll conduct the on-site investigation today to calculate the distribution of the wreckage, possibly expanding the investigation area based on the aircraft's trajectory," said one of the experts.

"As the site may have to be excavated soon, we'll try to complete as much of the investigation as possible today," the expert added.

Affected by continuous rainfall, the site is slippery and muddy, and the search and rescue work has been hindered to some extent.

A road leading to the core site of the accident has been built and weaved bamboo has been laid along the road to reduce the impact of the rain.

(With input from Xinhua) 

Search and rescue operations at the plane crash site in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were suspended early Wednesday morning due to rain. 

Rain water was filling the soft soil pits caused by the impact by the plane crash, and there were risks of landslides that made the operations more challenging. 

Additionally, at least 30 trained dogs had joined in the operations at the site. 

China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 crashed, with 132 people on board, in the mountains of Tengxian County in Wuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, at 14:38 on Monday. 

Rescue efforts are continuing at the site and an investigation is underway. The total number of casualties is still unknown.

A Boeing 737 airplane with 132 passengers on board crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 21. It has been over 30 hours since the passenger plane crashed. The search for the black box continues, but the operation is facing some tough challenges.

No survivors have been found so far and authorities do not have a clear assessment of the cause of Monday's airplane crash in southern China, an aviation official said at a press conference on Tuesday night.

The investigation into the cause of the crash is very difficult because of the severe damage to the aircraft, said Zhu Tao, director of aviation safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

At about 2:38 p.m. on Monday, a China Eastern Airlines passenger jetliner with 132 people on board, including nine crew members, crashed into a mountainous area in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to south China's Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou, the CAAC confirmed.

Rescuers are making all-out efforts to search for the two black boxes on the aircraft, said Zhu, adding the rescue operation is still in progress.

The families of the 123 passengers were contacted within 24 hours after the tragedy, said Sun Shiying, chairman of China Eastern Airlines Yunnan branch, in the press conference.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, numbered B1791, was about 6 years and 10 months old, and was delivered on June 22, 2015, said Sun.

At the time of the crash, the plane had recorded 18,239 flight hours on 8,986 flights, Sun added, noting the aircraft met requirements before takeoff and the crew members were in good health with sufficient flight experience.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Tuesday issued a notice calling for a two-week safety inspection of the industry based on previous safety supervision work, aiming to discover potential safety hazards, and ensure the absolute safety of aviation operations and people's lives.

No survivors have been found so far among the 123 passengers and nine crew members aboard the crashed China Eastern Airlines passenger plane, an official said at a press conference on Tuesday.

China Eastern Airlines has set up an emergency hotline following the crash on Monday of one of its passenger planes with 132 people onboard. The airline has also set up working groups to handle investigation, family assistance and legal support.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that he is deeply grieved by the China Eastern Airlines passenger plane crash, adding that search and rescue missions are underway to find out the cause of the incident as soon as possible.

A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jetliner carrying 132 people crashed into a mountainous area in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at about 2:38 p.m. Beijing time on Monday.

The first black box was retrieved on Thursday and is undergoing analysis in Beijing. The search for the second black box continues, and rescue work has expanded around the crash site. Pieces of the wreckage and some of the personal belongings of passengers were found.

The crashed aircraft belongs to Boeing's Next-Generation (NG) family and is considered one of the world's safest planes. How safe is it? Here's what we've learned about the Boeing 737-800 jetliner and its operator China Eastern Airlines.

Is the Boeing 737-800 safe?

The Boeing 737NG has had some issues over the past years. In 2019, nearly five percent of 1,000 such planes had cracks detected and were grounded worldwide for repair. The cracks were detected in the "pickle fork" – the part that attaches the plane's fuselage, or body, to the wing structure and manages forces.

More than 7,000 of the series have been delivered since 1993. Boeing stopped assembling 737NGs in 2019 and handed the last two to China Eastern Airlines on January 5, 2020. However, the production continued for several hundred military variants of the 737NG.

A part of the 737 family, the 737NGs are the world's most-flown commercial aircraft series. It was developed in the 1960s to serve short- or medium-range routes. The 162- to 189-seat 737-800 was launched on September 5, 1994. 

It also had a strong safety record after nearly three decades of flights. The NG models had 0.07 fatal crashes per million flights as of 2019, according to Airsafe.com, an aviation safety tracking website. 

Before Monday's crash of flight MU5735, the most recent fatal crash involving a 737-800 occurred in August 2020 when an Air India Express plane overshot the table-top runway and crashed while landing at Calicut International Airport in the southern state of Kerala in heavy rain, killing 21 people. A government report cited pilot error as the probable cause.

The NG is the predecessor to the 737 MAX that was grounded worldwide for 20 months after two fatal crashes killed 346 people. The model remains grounded in China.

The jetliner involved in the China Eastern accident en route from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, to Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, has been in service for six years, according to Flightradar24, a global flight tracking service.

In the United States, American Airlines has the most 737-800s in operation with 265, followed by Southwest Airlines with 205 and United Airlines with 136, according to Cirium data.

(With input from Reuters)

Check out more about history record of accidents involving Boeing 737-800

Aircraft debris and some personal belongings have been found at the air crash site in Tengxian County of Wuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region following an jetliner accident on Monday. 

Flight MU5735, a China Eastern Airline Boeing 737 jetliner carrying 132 people, crashed at about 14:38 BJT on Monday. People onboard the aircraft are still unaccounted for as the rescue work is underway at the mountainous site. 

Check out the latest video taken by a CMG reporter from the scene. 

CGTN reporter He Weiwei visited the site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where a Boeing 737 plane with 132 people on board crashed. A rescue command center has been established and firefighters were headed to the crash site.

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said in a letter on Monday that the planemaker has offered the full support of its technical experts to the investigation led by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

"We are deeply saddened by the news of the accident involving a China Eastern Airlines 737-800 airplane. The thoughts of all of us at Boeing are with the passengers and crew members on Flight MU 5735, as well as their families and loved ones," Calhoun added.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and State Councilor Wang Yong on Monday led officials to guide rescue work at the site of the passenger plane crash in Wuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday it has appointed a senior air safety investigator as a U.S. accredited representative to the investigation of the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Before the plane crash in China's Guangxi on Monday, the Boeing 737-800 model was involved in 22 accidents, according to Aviation Safety Network (ASN).

Ten among those incidents were fatal, per the ASN database, with the first fatal crash on the record happening in September 2006 when an 18-day-old 737-800 collided mid-air in Brazil, killing 154 people.

The most recent case happened in August 2020 when an Air India Express flight slid off the runway in Kozhikode-Calicut Airport in India, killing 21 people.

At about 2:38 p.m. on Monday, a China Eastern Airlines passenger jetliner with 132 people on board crashed into a mountainous area in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The plane was flying from the southwestern city of Kunming to south China's Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou, the Civil Aviation Administration of China confirmed.

The number of casualties remains unknown as of 11:30 p.m. Beijing time. Company officials said the carrier has grounded all Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the crash.

Here is a list of all the accidents involving the model:

(Cover: A Boeing 737-800 operated by China Eastern Airlines in Shanghai, China, July 13, 2017. /CFP)

CGTN reporter Huang Fei is at Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport, where the crashed Boeing 737 plane was scheduled to land. The airport says that at the moment most flights are taking off as scheduled. But China Eastern has canceled and grounded all flights using Boeing 737-800 planes, the type of jet involved in the crash.

Rescue operations are underway after a passenger plane with 132 people aboard crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Monday. Local fire rescue teams, armed police forces and medical workers are pouring into the crash site, putting out the fire caused by the crash and searching for survivors.

A working group from China Eastern Airlines has arrived in Wuzhou City, where a Boeing 737 jet crashed Monday afternoon.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has promptly mobilized rescue forces in the city of Wuzhou to the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines flight, the Southern Theater Command said on Monday.

Boeing has taken note of the media reports about the crash of a China Eastern Airlines flight involving one of its models and is currently gathering more information, the company's headquarters told China Media Group.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday extended condolences over the crash of a China Eastern Airlines flight.

"We share the grief of our Chinese brothers and sisters and convey our deepest condolences and sympathies with the bereaved families," the prime minister said in a statement.

Rescue efforts are pouring in to Guangxi to search for survivors of the crashed passenger plane. 

On-site reporter from China Media Group learned the crash site is in a mountain area with limited access and poor connection.

Turkish foreign ministry on Monday extended condolences over the crash of a China Eastern Airlines flight.

"We extend our condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives as well as to the Chinese Government and the people of China," the ministry said in a statement.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) said on Monday via Twitter that it is aware of reports that China's Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed and is ready to assist in investigation efforts if asked.

China Media Group (CMG) learned from China Eastern Airlines that according to departure Information, no foreign passengers were aboard the crashed Boeing 737 airplane.

The company told CMG that it will conduct further confirmation.

The plane en route to Guangzhou with 123 passengers and nine crew members crashed on Monday.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, and rescue operations are ongoing. 

Click here for more:

Passenger plane carrying 132 people crashes in south China, rescue underway

Families of some crew members from the crashed Eastern Airlines flight have arrived in the company’s branch office in Yunnan Province and an assistance team is working on follow-up issues with them, China Media Group has learned.

China Eastern Airlines has activated its emergency response mechanism after a passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed on Monday. A work team has left for the crash site in Wuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

China Eastern Airlines has grounded all Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the crash, company officials said.

Boeing shares fell as much as 8 percent in premarket trading on Monday after a 737 passenger airplane crashed in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Monday afternoon with 132 people on board.

The passenger jet belongs to China Eastern Airlines. The company said it has activated its emergency response mechanism and sent a work team to the crash site, while Boeing China said it is gathering more information about the crash.

Shares of China Eastern Airlines in Hong Kong were down 6.5 percent after the news of the plane crash broke.

The jet involved in the accident was a six-year-old Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to Flightradar24, an aircraft flight-tracking website.

The popular 737-800 variant, a predecessor to the 737 MAX model, has a maximum seating capacity of 189 and is equipped with a CFM-56 engine, according to the planemaker's website.

According to a CCTV report, China Eastern grounded its fleet of 737-800 planes after the crash. The company has 109 of the aircraft in its fleet, according to FlightRadar24.

The crash comes when Boeing is inching toward regulatory approval in China for 737 MAX aircraft, its cash cow after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia led to its grounding in the world's largest domestic aviation market.

(With input from Reuters)

The crash site of the Chinese passenger plane was located at Molang Village, Langnan Town in Tengxian County, Wuzhou City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the local emergency department.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out efforts for rescue operations after a passenger plane with 132 people aboard crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Monday afternoon.

The Boeing 737 aircraft, which took off from Kunming and was bound for Guangzhou, crashed at about 2:38 p.m. into a mountainous area near the Molang village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, causing a mountain fire.

Live updates: Passenger plane crashes in south China, rescue underway 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in his instruction that he was shocked to learn about the incident involving China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735.

He ordered an immediate launch of emergency response and demanded efforts to organize the search and rescue work and properly deal with the aftermath.

The Chinese president's instructions also include appointing the State Council members to find out the cause of the crash as soon as possible, strengthening the investigation of safety hazards in civil aviation, and ensuring the absolute safety of aviation operations and people's lives.

Premier Li Keqiang, in a separate instruction, demanded maximum efforts to search for survivors, do everything possible to treat the injured, properly handle the aftermath and console the families of the victims.

Li asked authorities to publish information in a factual, timely and accurate manner, seriously investigate the cause of the incident and take strong measures to strengthen civil aviation safety management.

Following the instructions, working groups from related departments have been sent to guide the handling of the incident.

The fire caused by the plane crash has been put out, and rescue operations are underway. The number of casualties is still unknown.

(Cover: China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's emergency management department says the plane's crash site is in the Molang village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. /Xinhua)

China Eastern Airlines has activated its emergency response mechanism, and a work team will leave for the crash site at 6 p.m. on Monday, CMG has reported.

After the plane crash, Wuzhou fire rescue team immediately dispatched 23 fire trucks and 117 rescuers, and the first batch has already arrived at the scene.

A total of 538 rescue workers from Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin, Beihai, Yulin, Hezhou, Laibin, and Hechi have rushed to the scene to reinforce the team.

A China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board has crashed in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The accident caused a mountain fire, and the number of casualties is still unknown. The precise nature of the incident remains undetermined, and rescue operations are underway.

A total of 450 forest firefighters from Zhaoqing in Guangdong and Guilin in Guangxi are on their way to the scene. 

A total of 300 people from Zhaoqing in Guangdong are expected to arrive at 6:30 p.m., and 150 people from Guilin in Guangxi are expected to reach at 10:30 p.m.

The fire has been extinguished at the China Eastern aircraft crash site, according to local officials. 

China Eastern Airlines has turned its official web homepage in black and white color in a gesture to mourn for the plane crash in southern China's Guangxi.

Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed on Monday that a Boeing 737 passenger plane with 132 aboard crashed in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

CAAC has activated an emergency mechanism and sent a working group to the scene.