WUZHOU: Recovery crews searched in light rain for a second black box from a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane that plunged into a mountainside with 132 people on board, as more information emerged about the pilots of the flight.
A first black box found on Wednesday was the cockpit voice recorder based on an early assessment, a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official told reporters. The recording material appeared to have survived the impact in relatively good shape, and was being sent to Beijing for analysis, the official said.
The cockpit voice recorder would provide investigators with details of the communications between the flight's three pilots, which is one more than is normally required on board a Boeing 737-800 plane.
Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when the plane suddenly plunged from cruising altitude at about the time when it should have started its descent before landing.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane briefly appeared to pull out of its nosedive, before plunging again into a heavily forested slope in the mountainous Guangxi region of southern China.
Chinese authorities said the pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers during the rapid descent.
