More than 36,000 pieces of debris from the ill-fated China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed on March 21 have been found, raising hopes of uncovering clues about the cause of the accident.
On March 28, Chinese investigators reported that they had discovered 36,000 small fragments of flight MU5735, which crashed in Guangxi, China, on March 21, according to Bloomberg.
Debris from the aircraft found at the crash site. (Photo: Bloomberg).
The debris could assist in the investigation as data from the black box often does not fully explain what happened, said Zhu Tao, Director of Safety at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, during a press conference on March 28.
Earlier, Chinese officials also announced the recovery of two black boxes recording flight data at the crash site. The second black box can track over 1,000 parameters, from basic aircraft conditions such as speed and altitude to the status of smoke alarms or the position of flaps.
However, both devices were severely damaged, complicating the retrieval and decoding of the information inside.
Therefore, in addition to decoding data from the black boxes, investigators are also analyzing the collected parts and interviewing witnesses at the scene.
On March 26, AFP reported information from Chinese state media confirming that all 132 people on board the China Eastern flight had perished.
“All 123 passengers and 9 crew members on flight MU5735 of China Eastern Airlines have died” when the aircraft crashed on March 21, CCTV quoted Hu Zhenjiang, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration, as saying.
The flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed into mountainous terrain in Guangxi, China, on March 21.
The cause of the accident has yet to be determined.
