This is how they remember the victims of the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed

No survivors found from China Eastern plane crash 0:45

(CNN) --

One passenger on the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed Monday was a mother traveling to visit her daughter, whom she hadn't seen in several years.

Another was a woman who was going to reunite with her fiancé after spending months apart.

As they awaited their arrival, those loved ones were confronted with horror after China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735, en route from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashed in the densely forested mountains of southern China.

• No survivors found after China's worst air disaster in more than a decade, state media say

Rescue teams continued to search the crash site for a third day on Wednesday, but have found no survivors.

Meanwhile, the stories of the victims are beginning to be known in the country's state media, which paint a portrait of the 132 people on board.

Simultaneously, people from all over the country share messages of mourning: a pain that is exacerbated by two years of isolation and separation during the covid-19 pandemic.

"We really missed each other": Relatives of the victims of the China Eastern plane speak

A man told the state-run

that he and his fiancée, in a long-distance relationship, had been together for five years.

"This time we had four months of not seeing each other face to face, we really missed each other," he recounted.

His fiancee had originally planned to fly to Guangzhou to see him on March 22.

But she missed him too much and she changed his flight to an earlier one: MU5735.

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A China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains of southern China's Guangxi region on March 21, 2022.

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The Boeing 737 was traveling from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou when it lost contact over the city of Wuzhou.

In this photo, ambulances are shown arriving at the accident site in Guangxi province.

(Credit: STR/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)

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On board the China Eastern Airlines plane were 123 passengers and nine crew members, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

In this photo taken on the night of March 21, it shows rescue teams at the accident site.

(Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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Rescue efforts related to the accident may face obstacles due to bad weather and limited accessibility to the site, Chinese state media reported.

In this photo, emergency workers, who are in the accident area, are seen resting after arduous rescue work on March 21, 2022. (Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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The accident site lacks electricity as it is surrounded by mountains on three sides and can only be reached via a narrow road, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported, citing the Guangxi Wuzhou fire department.

(Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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China Eastern Airlines also indicated that it will ground all its flights with Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to Chinese state media CCTV.

This photo shows the information screen at Changshui International Airport with a China Eastern Airlines flight canceled after the accident.

(Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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Several remains of the China Eastern Airlines plane were marked with numbers by rescuers who arrived at the scene.

(Credit: CGTN; CCTV)

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A day after the accident, Chinese investigators said no communications could be established with the crew aboard China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 in the final moments before it crashed.

24 hours after the accident, the plane's black boxes had not been found.

In this photo, military personnel appear in the investigation of the accident in the city of Wuzhou.

(Credit: /CNS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Relatives of the passengers of flight MU5375 are in the waiting area waiting for information after the crash of the China Eastern Airlines plane on March 22, 2022. (Credit: NOEL CELIS / AFP via Getty Images)

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Rescuers head to the crash site on March 22, 2022. The China Eastern Airlines plane with 132 people on board went down there.

(Credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Another woman told the news outlet that she had been abroad for several years and had not seen her mother for a long time.

Her mom was on her way to visit her and she originally planned to transit through Shanghai.

But, on the advice of a travel agent, she changed her flight to go through Guangzhou.

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Among the passengers was also a teenage girl, according to

A student in Kunming city, she was on her way to her home in Guangzhou to celebrate her 16th birthday with friends and family.

Unbeknownst to her, her friends had planned a surprise party.

Before boarding the flight, she texted a friend and said, "When I see you all, I need to give you a proper hug."

• A Boeing 737 crashed in China.

  This is what we know about the plane

Others on board were young professionals on business trips and honeymooners, according to state media.

No clues about the cause of the accident

This was the route of the crashed plane in China 1:50

The crash of the China Eastern Airlines plane on Monday marks the country's worst air disaster in more than a decade.

The cause of the accident is still unknown.

The plane was "flying normally" before it suddenly began to fall and lost contact with ground control, just over an hour into the flight, an airline representative told a news conference on Tuesday.

Pre-flight tests showed no problems and all crew members were healthy and qualified, he added.

Military policemen search the crash site of a China Eastern Airlines plane in Guangxi province on March 22.

More than 2,000 emergency workers have been deployed to the site, searching for the so-called black boxes.

That is, flight data and cockpit voice recorders that could hold crucial clues about how the disaster unfolded.

The search was called off on Wednesday morning due to heavy rain.

The airline has contacted the families of all passengers and crew on board, according to the state-run Global Times tabloid.

Some relatives gathered at the Guangzhou airport, where the flight was supposed to land, waiting in a cordoned-off area for any news of their loved ones.

Others are heading to Wuzhou, near the crash site, as several hotels in the city prepare rooms to receive families.

In addition, there is an investigation by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), with the US National Transportation Safety Board and the US Federal Aviation Administration also involved.

But it could be months, or even more than a year, before families get any answers.

For example, the final report of the Henan Airlines fatal accident in 2010 was published almost two years later.

Plane with 132 people on board crashes in southern China 1:34

Air accident investigators warned Tuesday that their investigation into the cause of the crash will be "very difficult" because of how badly damaged the plane is.

"Because the investigation has just started, we cannot make a clear judgment on the cause of the accident with the information we have so far. The investigation team will spare no effort to collect evidence from all parties and focus on the search," a CAAC official said.

The messages for the tragedy of the plane in China

The accident sparked a wave of mourning messages online.

The topic was even a trend in recent days on Weibo, China's platform similar to Twitter.

The tags related to the accident have been seen hundreds of millions of times, while many people ask for privacy and respect for the families of the victims.

Images and recordings of the accident deepened the national horror.

Especially the video taken by a mining company near the crash site, showing what appears to be a plane hurtling rapidly into the forest, nearly vertical in its nosedive.

• Plane crashes with 132 people on board in southern China

CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the video, or that the alleged aircraft is MU5735.

But the sharp drop coincides with available flight tracking data, which showed the China Eastern plane plummeted more than 25,000 feet in less than two minutes.

Many Weibo users also pointed out that the anguish of the tragedy is exacerbated by the difficulties of life during covid-19, with many families separated and unable to see each other.

As China currently battles its biggest wave of Covid-19 since Wuhan in 2020, the plane crash felt like an unexpected blow.

“They should have been able to go home for a reunion and travel with their families after the pandemic,” one person wrote in a Weibo post.

"(Guangzhou airport) still has all the people they love the most."

• ANALYSIS |

  The "zero covid-19" policy is showing signs of strain in China.

  But abandoning her now could be a disaster

“In the last two years, we have missed too many beautiful things due to covid-19 or other reasons,” wrote another.

“For those passengers on the plane, maybe they all had messages on their phones: 'See you later,' 'You're almost home,' 'We finally don't need to have a long-distance relationship anymore.'

But their lives ended at that moment, while receiving those messages.”

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