China plane crash: Black box of Boeing 737 recovered from crash site by investigating team

In a major development, the Chinese investigation team has found one of the black box flight recorders from the ruins of the Boeing 737-800 that crashed in southern China on Monday. According to a report by Xinhua, the flight recorder may provide some clues as to why the aircraft dropped straight from cruise altitude and crashed into a forested hillside near the city of Wuzhou in the Guanxi Zhuang autonomous region. Notably, black boxes are installed in high-end aircraft to capture information including flight performance, pilot input, and cockpit audio. 

When this incident occurred, the weather was suitable for flying and the conditions were not dangerous, said Mao Yanfeng, director of the accident investigation unit at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). He said that the crew members had maintained normal communication with air traffic control units until the situation went out of hand.

China: Investigation team finds black box at Boeing 737 crash site

According to the South China Morning Post, "The aircrew had maintained normal communication with air traffic control units since the aircraft took off from Kunming until the sudden drop in altitude, according to communication records," Yanfeng said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the CAAC head of aviation safety, Zhu Tao, revealed on Tuesday that the aircraft had been severely damaged, which has made it difficult for the investigation. The cause of the accident is unknown at this time, but the investigation team is probing the mishap. Earlier, searchers had deployed drones and sniffer dogs to find out the cause of the accident.

Image: AP, Representative