Rain began to fall on Wednesday morning, forcing work to be halted for several hours as the force of the ship’s collapse filled in holes in the ground and caused several landslides.
On this day, rescuers are removing the mud from the avalanches, draining the accumulated water and laying bamboo branches on the ground to continue the work and locate the second black box of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU 5735.
The disaster area is mountainous, it’s complicated and the government used machines to open access through the dense vegetation.
Meanwhile, experts in Beijing are trying to decode the information from the first black box found the day before and are also examining the only human tissue samples recovered so far.
The device was found with extensive external damage, but the internal part is expected to be intact and allow more data to be extracted about what happened during the trip.
However, evidence was provided that normal weather conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, the nine crew members were in good health, the ship met safety requirements prior to launch, and communication with the control towers was maintained from launch to the sudden crash.
In addition, a spokesman for China Eastern Airlines assured that the decision to ground all Boeing 737800s does not mean the model poses any risks and is just a responsible action while the incident is being investigated.
MU 5735 crashed into a mountainous area in southern Guangxi Zhang Autonomous Region on Monday en route from Kunming to Guangzhou.
It took off at 1:15 p.m. local time, at 2:19 p.m. it began to descend steeply from an altitude of 8,869 meters at a speed of 845 kilometers per hour and lost contact with the radar two minutes later.
The facility was in operation for six and a half years and had a capacity for 162 passengers.
A local official said the ship had completely disintegrated, had not seen the remains of any of the victims and thought there was little chance of survival due to the forest fire that broke out in the area as a result of the accident.
In fact, a video circulated in the country shows the moment of the fall of the ship, which was moving in a vertical position and at 0.7 times the speed of sound.
jf/ymr