China finds black box of plane that crashed with 132 on board, halts search for survivors

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A Boeing 737-800 black box that crashed in China with 132 people on board has been recovered, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced on Wednesday.

Shortly before announcing the finding that may help to clarify the circumstances in which the aircraft crashed, the entity said it had interrupted the search for possible survivors due to heavy rains in the region. Since a few hours after the tragedy, however, the emergency services’ expectation of finding any of the passengers or crew alive is very low.

“It is possible that there will be small landslides,” said a reporter for Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, adding that kerosene could still be smelled at the site.

The China Eastern Airlines plane had departed the city of Kunming bound for Guangzhou. Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, doctors and volunteers were mobilized to search for traces of the passengers, their belongings, and the black boxes.

The plane crashed at an almost vertical angle and lost 8 km of altitude in less than two minutes in circumstances that still puzzle experts.

The possible confirmation of the deaths of all 123 passengers and nine crew members would make this the worst plane crash since 1994 in China, where air safety is considered very good by experts. According to the CAAC, all people on board were Chinese nationals.

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