China says black boxes of crashed jet are severely damaged

FILE PHOTO: Rescue workers work at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

BEIJING/SYDNEY — China’s aviation authority said on Wednesday the black boxes of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed last month were badly damaged and it was still recovering and analyzing the data to help determine the cause.

The crash, China’s first deadly air accident since 2010, killed 132 people.

In a statement on its preliminary crash report, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) did not make public any information from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which were sent to Washington for analysis.

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CAAC said the flight crew were qualified, the jet was properly maintained and the weather was fine when flight MU5735, which was en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, plunged from cruising altitude and crashed in the mountains of Guangxi on March 21.

The last normal call from air traffic controllers to the plane was at 2:16 p.m. local time while it was cruising at 8,900 meters (29,200 feet), less than five minutes before the plane began to deviate from its normal path as tracked by controllers in Guangzhou, the CAAC statement said.

At 2:21 p.m., the last information recorded on radar before the signal disappeared had the plane at an altitude of 3,380 meters (11,100 feet), a ground speed of 1,010 km per hour (627 miles per hour), and a heading of 117 degrees.

READ: China launches inspection of airlines as search for crash victims continues

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24’s last data, recorded nearly a minute later, had the plane at an altitude of 3,225 feet, a ground speed of 376 miles per hour, and a heading of 87 degrees.

CAAC said it had completed the preliminary report, which according to international rules must be filed to the United Nations aviation agency ICAO within 30 days. A final report could take a year or more to complete.

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