Chinese authorities confirmed Saturday that 132 passengers and crew of the plane that crashed in the south of the country last Monday have been confirmed this Saturday and no traces of explosives have been found, Xinhua news agency reported.
China Eastern Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 crashed in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region last Monday, and the investigation found no traces of organic or mineral explosives.
Of the 66 samples taken, 41 were examined by the Physics and Chemistry Laboratory Where the device is inactive and no ionic components of common mineral explosives, Guangxi Zhuang, director of the region’s fire brigade, explained. No traces of organic explosives.
Of the 132 crew and passengers on the same Saturday, 120 have already been identified. Rescue operations are continuing, according to a report by the Beijing Air Transport Authority.
While the flight voice recorder has been recovered, the data recorder is still missing. The voice recorder is damaged, but relatively complete, according to a report in the Chinese state-run newspaper The Global Times.
The emergency locator transmitter (ELT) has also been recovered, according to Xu Tao, director of the Air Defense Bureau of China’s Civil Aviation Administration. Inside the plane, the ELT level was close to the level of the second black box that had not yet been discovered, Xu added.
The crash is considered unusual as the plane descended rapidly from an altitude of more than 8,000 meters. The plane seemed to have adjusted its course for a while as it landed, but then crashed into a jungle.
According to officials, several attempts were made to contact the crew, but no response was forthcoming. About three minutes after starting the descent, the signal disappeared. Flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou was carrying 9 crew and 123 passengers.
