China says black boxes of crashed jet are severely damaged

Agencies | Beijing

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

China said on Wednesday the black boxes of a Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed last month were badly damaged, leaving virtually no publicly available clues to explain its violent plunge into a wooded hillside, killing all 132 people on board.

China Eastern flight MU5735 from Kunming to Guangzhou plunged from cruising altitude into the mountains of Guangxi on March 21 in China's first fatal air crash since 2010.

Summarising its preliminary crash report, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) did not include any information from the cockpit voice and data recorders, which had been sent to Washington for analysis. "The two recorders on the plane were severely damaged due to the impact, and the data restoration and analysis work is still in progress," CAAC said in a statement.

CAAC gave no indication of the focus of its probe. Most accidents are caused by a mix of technical and human factors.

"There are many difficulties in investigating this accident, and at the moment the available evidence is limited," Li Yong, deputy director of CAAC's aviation safety office, said in an interview with state news agency Xinhua.

But the regulator ruled out a number of risks, saying the crew were qualified, the jet was properly maintained, the weather was fine and no dangerous goods were onboard. In a potentially key finding, it said most of the wreckage was concentrated in one area.

Safety analysts said that would not typically happen in the event of a catastrophic mid-air break-up or explosion, but did not rule out parts being torn off in the dive after CAAC said part of one wingtip was found 12km away.

"Two questions you'd have to look at: did that piece coming off cause the dive or did the dive cause that piece to go off," said Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Chinese aviation expert Li Xiaojin said in the absence of other findings, data from black boxes was vital.

"These boxes are designed to be really, really robust," Brickhouse said. "I really can't think of an accident in recent history where we found the boxes and we didn't get information from them."