Human remains found as search for second black box is expanded after China plane crash

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Emergency workers using sniff dogs to conduct search for the black box near the debris at the China Eastern flight crash site in Tengxian County in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. The search area was expanded Thursday in a "blanket search" for the second black box from a China Eastern passenger plane that crashed in southern China with 132 people on board earlier this week, state media said. (Jiang Huaipeng/Xinhua via AP)
Emergency workers using sniffer dogs as they search for the black box near the debris at the China Eastern flight crash site. Credit: Jiang Huaipeng/Xinhua via AP

Human remains, wallets, and identity and bank cards have been found in the search for survivors after a China Eastern passenger plane crashed with 132 people on board earlier this week.

The search area was expanded on Thursday as investigators hunt for the second black box from the China Eastern jet, state broadcaster CCTV said. Bad weather in the steep, densely forested area was impeding rescue teams for a second day.

One of the black boxes, believed to be the cockpit voice recorder, was found on Wednesday. Its outer casing was damaged but the orange cylinder was relatively intact, investigators said.

The Boeing 737-800 was cruising at 29,000 feet (8,800 metres) when it suddenly nose-dived into a remote mountainside area, setting off a fire in the surrounding forest that could be seen in NASA satellite images. The plane left a pit about the size of a football pitch where it crashed, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

A Bloomberg News review of flight-track data found Flight MU5735 was travelling close to the speed of sound in the moments before it slammed into the mountainside.

Recovering the black boxes — which are usually painted orange for visibility — is considered key to figuring out what caused the crash.

The orange-coloured "black box" recorder was recovered at the crash site. Credit: AP
No survivors found in crash of Chinese plane carrying 132 people

Cockpit voice recorders can capture voices, audio alerts and background sounds from the engine or even switches being moved. The flight data recorder stores information about the plane’s airspeed, altitude and direction up or down, as well as pilot actions and the performance of important systems.

Investigators have said it is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash. 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.

The China Eastern flight was heading from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, a major city on China’s southeastern coast. China Eastern, headquartered in Shanghai, is one of China’s four major airlines.