Second black box of crashed China plane recovered

Photo taken on March 27, 2022 shows the second black box recovered at the crash site of the China Eastern Airlines' plane in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The second black box of the plane that crashed Monday in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was recovered Sunday, according to the national emergency response headquarters for the accident. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

NANNING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The second black box of the China Eastern Airlines' plane that crashed Monday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was recovered Sunday, according to the national emergency response headquarters for the accident.

The Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, and was bound for Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, crashed into a mountainous area in Tengxian County, Guangxi, at around 2:38 p.m. Monday. All 132 people on board the plane were dead, according to the headquarters.

The second black box has been confirmed by investigators as the flight-data recorder and sent to a lab for decoding, Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told a press briefing on Sunday afternoon.

The exterior of its data-storage unit is relatively complete despite the fact that other parts of the device have been severely damaged, added Zhu.

The second black box was recovered 40 meters from the impact point of the crash and 1.5 meters beneath the ground at about 9:20 a.m., said Zheng Xi, head of the Guangxi region's fire brigade.

The plane's first black box -- the cockpit voice recorder -- was recovered on Wednesday. The data downloading and analysis work of the first black box is underway.