Progress in the investigation of the Boeing 737-800: one of the two black boxes of the China Eastern Airlines plane which crashed on Monday in the mountains of southern China has been found, announced Wednesday March 23 at a representative of the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) told the press.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, was on a flight between the cities of Kunming and Guangzhou.
It was carrying 132 people, 123 passengers and nine crew members.
According to data from the specialized site FlightRadar, the plane suddenly dived towards the ground before crashing, a behavior considered unusual by the experts.
Black Box
The CAAC was not immediately able to specify whether the black box found was the one dedicated to the recording of voices in the cockpit (CVR) or the one containing the flight data (FDR).
The operation and use of black boxes are the same for all aircraft, regardless of the black box model, according to France's Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) for Civil Aviation.
Weighing seven to ten kilograms each, they are in fact orange with reflective white stripes, to make them more visible, and are located at the tail of the aircraft.
The "cockpit voice recorder" (CVR), which works like a tape recorder, contains two hours of audio recording of conversations and noises in the cockpit: discussions between the pilots, communications with the crew, but also ambient noises in the cockpit. aircraft, including possible alarms, thanks to four audio recording tracks.
The most recent models allow 25 hours of recording.
"Determine the causes of the accident as soon as possible"
Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, doctors, volunteers and local politicians remain mobilized to find traces of the passengers, their personal effects and the second black box.
The possible confirmation of the death of the 132 passengers would make it the worst plane crash since 1994 in China, where aviation safety is considered very good by experts.
According to the CAAC, all the people on board were of Chinese nationality.
The CAAC has nevertheless ordered a general inspection of the entire aviation sector over the next two weeks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Monday to "determine the causes of the accident as soon as possible" and dispatched a government team led by Vice Premier Liu He to the scene.
With AFP
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