China crash: Did the plane suffer a midair breakup?

Beijing, Mar 25: The mystery continues to deepen into the crash of the China Eastern Airlines Corp. Ltd. jet. One piece of the Boeing Co. 737-800 that crashed in China appears have broken loose well before the impact.

If this is confirmed by investigators then it would indicate that the plane suffered a midair breakup.

Jeff Guzzetti, the former chief of accident investigations at the US Federal Aviation Administration said, questions are: exactly what piece was it and when did it come off," according to a Bloomberg report.

The Boeing 737-800 plane with 132 people on board crashed on Monday in a village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou. No survivors have been found so far. One black box from the plane has been recovered.

Black box is a recording device used by aviation investigators to analyse the events leading to the air mishap Cockpit voice recorders can capture voices, audio alerts and background sounds from the engine or switches being moved. The flight data recorder stores information about speed, altitude and direction, as well as pilot actions and performance of important systems.

The data of the Cockpit Voice Recorder was awaited keenly as China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 9,075 feet in just two minutes and 15 seconds, crashing into a mountainous area.

On Thursday, pieces of engine wreckage from the crashed passenger plane have been found.

The main impact point of the plane crash has been basically determined, Zhu said, adding that most of the plane wreckage was scattered within a radius of about 30 metres of the main impact point and the depth from the surface extends to about 20 metres underground.

So far, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims have been found and handed over to the investigation team, said Zheng Xi, head of the fire brigade of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Rescuers expanded the search area on Thursday despite persistent rain that has complicated rescue efforts over the past days, he said.

Rain caused waterlogging at the core crash site and increased the risk of small-scale landslides. Large rescue vehicles and equipment was not able to reach the area due to the narrow and slippery mountain road, Zheng said.

The area east of the core crash site is mainly virgin mountain forest and the steep and heavily-wooded terrain increased the difficulty of the search-and-rescue effort, he said.

Hu Xiaobing, professor of School of Safety Science and Engineering of the Civil Aviation University of China, told state-run CGTN that this crash is very unusual for it being vertical. It seems to him, for some reason unknown yet, the pilots may have already become unconscious during the steep descend.

Following the crash, China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries temporarily grounded 223 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and the airline has launched a sweeping safety overhaul, Liu Xiaodong, head of the airline's publicity department, told a press briefing.

All grounded aircraft are undergoing checks and maintenance according to the highest safety standards to ensure that they meet the airworthiness requirements, Liu said.

Liu added that 305 family members of 56 passengers on board the crashed plane arrived at Wuzhou by Thursday morning, with over 200 family members visiting the crash site.