WUZHOU, China (AP) China said Wednesday that one of the two flight recorders on the China Eastern plane that crashed two days ago during a flight with 132 people on board was found but badly damaged.
The device, which is bright orange despite its name, was so damaged that investigators have not yet been able to determine whether it is the one recording the flight data or the cockpit voices, said Mao Yanfeng, director of the China Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation Department .
All efforts are now focused on finding the other tape recorder, he added during a news conference.
The salvage of the socalled black boxes is considered an important step in clarifying the cause of the accident. It wasn’t immediately clear if damage to the found device would limit its usefulness.
The search for clues as to why the Chinese airliner suddenly crashed and crashed into a mountain in southern China had been called off earlier Wednesday after rain soaked the area where debris was scattered.
Investigators used hand tools, drones and sniffer dogs in the rain to comb the lush hills for data and voice recorders and possible human remains. Crews also worked to drain the water from the pit created in the red earth when the plane hit the ground, but work was suspended in the morning due to the possibility of small landslides on the steep and slippery slopes.
The black box was found in the afternoon. The data logger collects information about the aircraft’s speed, altitude and direction, as well as the actions of the pilot and the operation of all of the aircraft’s key systems. The other records sounds, including conversations and background engine noise during flight.
The passengers’ relatives arrived Wednesday in Lu, a town just outside the scene of the accident, where they, along with reporters who had been displaced to the area, were detained by police and authorities, who opened umbrellas to prevent them from seeing anything outside of.
One of the women was heard saying that her husband, the father of her two children, was on the plane.
“I’ll just go in and see. Am I breaking the law?” he said. The woman and a companion were taken away and reporters were asked to stop the recording.
Another man, who identified himself by his last name, Ding, said that his sisterinlaw was one of the passengers and that he hoped to visit the accident site, but authorities had said little to him.
China Eastern Flight 5735 was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members as it departed Kunming in Yunnan province for Guangzhou, an industrial hub on China’s southeast coast. It crashed outside the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region on Monday afternoon. All 132 people are said to have died.
Investigators say it’s too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. The plane began a dizzying and inexplicable descent an hour after takeoff and stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after it crashed.