China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735: experts in delicate data retrieval effort, search for second black box

Rescuers extract fingerprint samples and find personal items as they look for clues to cause of Boeing 737-800 crash

Search for plane’s second black box is complicated by terrain, extreme humidity and stringent Covid-19 prevention measures

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Search and rescue workers carry boxes believed to contain belongings of people on board the crashed China Eastern flight in Teng county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Thursday. Photo: Xinhua via AP

Jane Cai,Jack LauandHolly Chik

Published: 10:22am, 25 Mar 2022Updated: 10:22pm, 25 Mar 2022

Corrected [11:19am, 25 Mar, 2022]

[11:19am, 25 Mar, 2022]
An earlier version of this story reported that the second black box had been found, according to CAAC News. The newspaper has since retracted this and clarified that it had not yet been located.

The search for the second black box from the China Eastern Airlines plane crash continues as experts try to retrieve data from the recovered cockpit voice recorder, according to Chinese air accident investigators.

“The Civil Aviation Administration of China laboratory staff have been intensively repairing and downloading data from the device since they received the recorder,” Mao Yanfeng, director of the CAAC’s accident investigation unit, said on Friday.

“There is still no definite time when the download will be completed and analysis can start.

“If the data storage chip is damaged, it would generally be sent to the recorder manufacturer for repair.”

One of the two black boxes of the crashed plane is recovered in Teng county, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Wednesday. Photo: Xinhua

The Boeing 737-800 crashed on Monday with 132 people on board in China’s worst aviation disaster in more than a decade.

China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735: experts in delicate data retrieval effort, search for second black box

Rescuers extract fingerprint samples and find personal items as they look for clues to cause of Boeing 737-800 crash Search for plane’s second black box is complicated by terrain, extreme humidity and stringent Covid-19 prevention measures

Rescuers extract fingerprint samples and find personal items as they look for clues to cause of Boeing 737-800 crash

Search for plane’s second black box is complicated by terrain, extreme humidity and stringent Covid-19 prevention measures