After the crash of a passenger plane with 132 people on board in southern China, search parties found one of the two flight recorders.

The device was discovered during search work on Wednesday, said a spokesman for the Chinese aviation safety authority.

Experts hope that the evaluation of the black boxes will provide clues as to the cause of the crash, which has so far been completely unclear.

The China Eastern Airlines plane suddenly went into a steep nosedive on Monday and a short time later crashed into a hilly forest area near the city of Wuzhou.

According to data from the website FlightRadar24.com, the aircraft was able to regain some altitude after an initial rapid drop, but then continued the fall.

According to the Chinese civil aviation authority, several attempts were made to contact the machine, but the crew did not answer.

The signal from the MU5735 then disappeared around three minutes after the start of the dive.

Cause of accident still unclear

"With the information currently available, it is impossible to make a clear judgment about the cause of the accident," Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Bureau, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

First, the investigative team would need to gather evidence.

On board the machine were 123 passengers and 9 crew members.

Due to poor weather conditions, work at the scene of the accident had to be temporarily suspended.

As the state television broadcaster CCTV reported on Wednesday, rescue and search work in the mountainous region, which is difficult to access, were interrupted because it was raining too much.

In addition, state media reported that two days after the accident on Monday, no survivors were found.