The Chinese authorities have confirmed this Saturday the death of the 132 passengers and crew of the plane that crashed last Monday in the south of the country and have certified that no remains of explosives have been found, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft of China Eastern Airlanes crashed in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region last Monday without the investigation finding any traces of organic or inorganic explosives.
A physical and chemical laboratory has examined 41 of the 66 samples taken in the place where the device crashed and has not located ionic components of common inorganic explosives, explained the director of Firefighters of the Guangxi Zhuang region. There have also been no traces of organic explosives.
This same Saturday it has been reported that 120 of the 132 crew members and passengers have already been identified. The recovery work continues, as reported by the Beijing aviation authority.
While the flight voice recorder has been recovered, the data recorder is still missing. The voice recorder was damaged but relatively complete, according to information published by the Chinese international state newspaper, ‘Global Times’.
An emergency locator transmitter (ELT) has also been recovered, according to Zhu Tao, director of the aviation security bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Inside the plane, the ELT position was close to that of the second black box yet to be found, Zhu added.
The accident, in which the plane rapidly descended from an altitude of more than 8,000 meters, is considered extremely unusual. The plane appeared to correct its course briefly during descent, but then crashed into a forest.
According to authorities, repeated attempts were made to contact the crew, with no response. About three minutes after the start of the descent, the signal disappeared. Flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou was carrying 9 crew members and 123 passengers.