Chinese television announced on Saturday that the 132 people on board the Boeing 737-800, which crashed in southern China on Monday, have died. Among them, passengers and crew members.
The 132 people on board the Boeing 737-800 that crashed in southern China on Monday have all died, Chinese state television CCTV said on Saturday. “All 123 passengers and nine crew members of China Eastern Company Flight MU5735 were killed on board on March 21,” CCTV said, citing Civil Aviation Administration Deputy Director General Hu Zhenjiang. “One hundred and twenty victims could be identified thanks to their DNA,” he added.
Drones, rescuers and thermal cameras had been mobilized in China to the crash site near the city of Wuzhou, in Guangxi province, and dozens of relatives of victims were awaiting the results of this research.
Black box analysis
Hopes were slim, the device having violently fallen before igniting after the impact. The force of the impact had thrown parts of the plane and objects belonging to the passengers over a large area. A first black box, which recorded conversations in the cockpit, was found on Wednesday and sent to Beijing for analysis.
The rescuers go through the site with a fine-toothed comb in order to find the second, the one which contains the flight data such as speed, altitude and heading followed. With these elements, the investigators should be able to determine the causes of the accident of the plane, which fell several thousand meters in a few minutes despite mild weather.