No survivors have been found in China more than 30 hours after the accident of a Boeing-737 which crashed in a mountainous area in the south of the country with 132 people on board, civil aviation said on Tuesday evening. .
As the black boxes have not yet been located, the authorities have also considered it premature to comment on the causes of the brutal fall of the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735.
The device provided the link between the major Chinese cities of Kunming and Canton. According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the passengers are a priori all Chinese. “So far, the rescue operations have not found any survivors,” Zhu Tao, director of aviation safety at the China Civil Aircraft Administration (CAAC), told reporters on Tuesday evening. .
“Given that the investigation has just started, we are unable to form a clear opinion on the causes of the accident based on the information we have,” he said.
Monday evening, the airline had presented its tributes to the “dead” of the disaster, without advancing to give a human toll.
Chinese media released images showing a sort of clearing formed by the aircraft in a wooded area, with little recognizable debris, apart from a piece of wing with the blue and red logo of the company.
The bodies and personal effects of the passengers were probably “entirely burned” by the explosion of the aircraft on the ground, followed by a fire, told AFP a rescuer who spent the night on the site.
“Very unusual” data
Rescuers have deployed drones to help with the search, but the search is complicated by the rugged terrain and dense vegetation around the disaster site.
Public television CCTV on Tuesday broadcast images of rescuers in fatigues or white coats, carrying stretchers and backpacks, moving with difficulty on the hills around the accident.
A reporter from People’s Dailywho was able to penetrate to the heart of the site, filmed a chaos of gutted metal parts, pieces of the dislocated aircraft or even a charred camera lens.
According to the specialized site FlightRadar24, the device lost in just one minute almost 21,250 feet (6477 m).
After a brief ascent, it dived again, 4,625 feet (1,410 m), according to the plotter, to be 3,225 feet (983 m) above the ground. There is no data for the next flight.
A video broadcast by Chinese media shows a plane nose down vertically, but AFP was unable to verify its authenticity.
Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of France’s Air Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau, said the data from the flight was “very unusual”.
Psychological support
At Guangzhou airport, staff take care of the families of passengers and crew members. Some 70 psychologists have also been sent for support, according to the China News Service.
The accident could prove to be the deadliest for Chinese civil aviation since 1994. The last air disaster dates back to 2010, with a death toll of around forty.
President Xi Jinping called on Monday to “determine the causes of the accident as soon as possible”, which remain unknown for the time being.
According to Chinese financial media yicaiChina Eastern has decided to temporarily ground all of its 737-800s.
The carrier’s stock fell more than 6% on Tuesday at the close of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Boeing said it was ready to cooperate with the investigation by the Chinese authorities. The title of the manufacturer had lost 3.6% Monday at the close of Wall Street.
The accident falls badly for the American aviation giant, which was about to resume deliveries of the 737 MAX, another type of aircraft suspended in early 2019 following two air disasters.