One of the two black boxes of the crashed plane in southern China with 132 passengers on board has been found in very poor condition, authorities said Wednesday.
The object is so damaged that it is unclear if it is the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.
Mao Yanfeng, director of the accident investigation division of the Civil Aviation Authority of China, told a news conference that a lot of effort is being made to find the other black box.
[They confirm that there are no survivors of the plane that crashed in China with 132 people on board]
The recovery of the so-called black boxes is considered key to finding out the
cause
of Monday's accident.
The search for clues as to why a Chinese commercial plane suddenly swooped and crashed into a mountain in southern China had been put on hold on Wednesday as rain had soaked the debris field and filled in the red dirt cut formed by the impact of the plane.
Rescuers work at the crash site of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 flight MU5735 in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.CGTN/via REUTERS
Previously, searchers had used hand tools,
drones and sniffer dogs
in rainy conditions to scour heavily forested slopes for flight data and cockpit voice recorders, as well as human remains.
Crews also worked to pump out water from the pit created when the plane crashed to the ground, but their efforts were halted mid-morning because small landslides were possible on the steep and slippery slopes.
Videos published by Chinese state media showed small pieces of the Boeing 737-800 plane scattered around the area.
Mud-stained wallets, bank cards and identity cards have
also been recovered.
Each piece of debris has a number next to it, the largest ones are marked with police tape.
A plane with 132 people on board crashes in a mountainous area of southern China
March 21, 202200:26
The relatives of the passengers began to arrive on Wednesday at the gate of the village of Lu, on the outskirts of the accident zone, where - together with the journalists who were at the scene - they were detained by the police and the officials who they used open umbrellas to block the view beyond.
One woman was heard saying that her husband, the father of her two children, was on board the flight.
“I'm just going to go in and take a look. Am I breaking the law?
she exclaimed.
The woman and her companion were escorted and the journalists were asked to stop filming.