All 132 people were killed

Xinhua News Agency reported on March 26 that rescuers found no survivors at the site where the China Eastern Airlines Boeing B-737-800 crashed. All 132 people on board were confirmed dead.

The accident happened on March 21, when a Boeing 737-800 bearing the number MU5735 of China Eastern Airlines crashed after taking off from Changshui International Airport, Kunming in Yunnan province at 13:15. (local time).

The plane is expected to land at 3:05 p.m. in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province on the same day. However, at 14:22, the plane lost contact.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the ill-fated Boeing 737 was carrying 123 passengers and 9 crew members.

Data from FlightRadar24 shows the plane was at an altitude of 8,800m before plunging at a speed of 560km/h.

After detecting the plane’s altitude plummeting at 14:20, air traffic control staff tried to contact the crew several times but received no response. Just two minutes later, the plane’s radar signal disappeared.

The plane then crashed into a mountainside in the countryside, on the outskirts of Wuzhou city in Guangxi.

Zhu Tao, head of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said rescuers were continuing to search for the wreckage as well as the bodies of victims of the ill-fated plane. The scope of search and rescue has expanded over an area of ​​nearly 200,000 square meters. More than 2,200 people participated in the rescue work.

Up to now, the rescue force has collected 18 fingerprint samples at the scene and 101 items of the victims. DNA samples are being taken from relatives of the missing passenger for comparison.

So far, only one black box has been found, which is a device containing cockpit voice recordings. The second black box containing flight data is still unknown.

According to experts, it usually takes about 3 months to analyze and issue an accident report if the black box is in intact condition. In the case of MU 5735, because the black box was found to be partially damaged, this process could take longer.