China Plane Crash 2022: 2nd Black Box Containing Recorded Data Recovered at Boeing 737 in Mountainside

Officials have discovered the second "black box" from a China Eastern Boeing 737-800, generating hopes that it'll reveal why a passenger airliner crashed into a remote mountainous location in southern China last week, killing all 132 people on board.

According to official media, firefighters searching for the flight data recorder discovered it on a steep slope some 130 feet from the place of impact and 5 feet beneath. Experts recognized it as the second black box. The collision carved a 65-foot-deep crater in the mountain's side and strewn debris across the landscape.

2nd Black Box From China Plane Crash Will Help Investigators

After discovering the cockpit voice recorder four days earlier, searchers started looking for the data recorder. The two black boxes should help authorities in determining what caused the jet to plunge from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) about an hour into the journey, just as it was ready to begin its descent.

The search was halted for a three-minute moment of silence for the 123 passengers and nine crew members on Sunday afternoon. Police and soldiers removed their hats while emergency workers removed their helmets. As sirens blared, they stood in formation and lowered their heads.

Flight MU5735 was flying from Kunming, in southwestern China, to Guangzhou, a major metropolis and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong, when it crashed on Monday. Officials said that after observing the plane's altitude drop dramatically, an air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots numerous times but received no response, KCRA3 reported.

The second black box was discovered Sunday at about 9:20 am by a team of firemen from southern China's Guangxi autonomous province, where the plane nosedived into a hillside. Zhu Tao, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said in a press conference. According to him, the box was around 130 feet distant from the plane's crash site and was buried several feet beneath.

On Wednesday, rescuers found the first black box, the cockpit voice recorder, but officials claimed they couldn't identify the second box's GPS signal and thought that its signal transmitter may have been destroyed in the accident, according to Mint.

Boeing 737's Cause of Crash Remains Mystery

The reason for the incident is still unknown, with authorities looking into whether the plane split apart in mid-flight before falling. Officials said an air traffic controller attempted to contact the pilots numerous times after witnessing the plane's altitude drop significantly, but received no response.

The names of 114 passengers and six crew members have been established by forensic and criminal investigation professionals, according to authorities. At least one component of the plane had broken off six miles before impact, according to investigations.

If the part is proven to be from a Boeing 737-800, Chinese officials believe the jet may have broken in mid-flight before crashing. Officials said it's impossible to tell if the component broke loose as a consequence of strains during the drop or fell off before the tragic plummet into the slope at this early point in the inquiry.

According to Bloomberg News' analysis of Flightradar24 data, the plane was flying at speeds substantially above normal when it made the plunge, probably approaching the speed of sound. According to examinations into the 1997 accident of SilkAir 737-300 in Indonesia, jetliners like the Boeing 737 may cause light-weight components of the wings and tail sections to fall off, which explains the part recovered six miles from the disaster scene.

Before crashing into a river, the tragic SilkAir flight was likewise traveling near to the speed of sound, and the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee ruled that the captain most likely committed murder-suicide.

The data also revealed that the aircraft was mostly undamaged since it continued to communicate its position until it reached 3,225 feet. China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries, one of China's four main airlines, have grounded all of its 737-800 aircraft, a total of 223 planes. The carrier stated that the grounding was only a precaution and not an indication that something was amiss, as per Daily Mail.