China Eastern plane crash: Search area expanded to find second black box

One black box from the airplane was found on Wednesday, rescuers told official news agency Xinhua.

A day after finding one black box from the China Eastern Airlines passenger jet that crashed in southern China, the search area has been expanded on Thursday on the lookout for the second black box, state broadcaster CCTV said, as reported by the Associated Press. Reportedly, searchers have been using hand tools, metal detectors, drones and sniffer dogs to comb the heavily forested and steep slopes.

Rescuers search for the black boxes at the plane crash site (Zhou Hua/Xinhua via REUTERS) (VIA REUTERS)

One black box from the airplane was found on Wednesday, rescuers told official news agency Xinhua. As experts struggle to understand what led to the crash, the discovery of one black box may reveal some critical information about the cause of the crash. However, according to the director of the accident investigation division of the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) Mao Yanfeng, the device is so damaged that investigators were not able to tell whether it is the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.

Black box is a recording device used by aviation investigators to analyse the events leading to the air mishap.

As per the state-run media Global Times, “Aircraft black boxes are generally in bright orange-red so they can be found quickly after a flight accident. They are built to withstand explosions, disintegration, high temperature combustion, immersion in water and other damage, and the battery lasts for about 30 days."

On the other hand, heavy rainfall in southern China’s Guangxi region has hampered the search mission massively. The national broadcaster China Central Television reported that “The search and rescue efforts for flight MU5735 were forced to halt on Wednesday due to rain. There is a possibility for small-scale landslides, adding uncertainty to the effort. In addition to the search for passengers and the black box, drainage work is also needed.”

A Chinese Eastern Airlines plane - a Boeing-737 - carrying 132 people, including nine crew members crashed in the country's southwestern province of Guangxi on Monday. The flight MU5735 was traveling from Kunming to Guangzhou. As per China's aviation regulatory body, contact with the aircraft was lost over Wuzhou city.

(With inputs from AP)