Chinese aircraft second black box retrieved, could help determine cause of crash
The other black box - the cockpit voice recorder - was found on Wednesday and has been sent to Beijing for examination by experts.
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FollowRecovery crews on Sunday found the second “black box” -- the flight data recorder - from the wreckage of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet that killed all 132 people on board last week, Chinese state media said.
Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when it plummeted from cruising altitude at about the time when it should have started its landing descent.
Firefighters taking part in the search found the recorder, an orange cylinder, on a mountain slope about 1.5 meters (5 feet) underground, state broadcaster CCTV said. Experts confirmed it was the second black box, news agency Associated Press (AP) reported.
Searchers had been looking for the flight data recorder after finding the cockpit voice recorder four days ago. The two recorders should help investigators determine what caused the plane to plummet from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) and into a forested mountainside in southern China, the report added.
An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said. CCTV and the official Xinhua news agency reported the discovery of the flight data recorder, citing officials.
The crash was the deadliest air disaster in mainland China since 1994, when a China Northwest Airlines flight from Xian to Guangzhou crashed, killing all 160 people on board.
The cause of the China Eastern crash remains unknown.
The other black box - the cockpit voice recorder - was found on Wednesday and has been sent to Beijing for examination by experts, news agency Reuters reported.
China Eastern, one of China’s four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their 737-800 aircraft, a total of 223 planes. The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign that anything was wrong.
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