Rescue teams worked this Tuesday in the rain and mud in the search for traces of the 132 people who were on board the China Eastern plane crashed in mountainous area in southwest Chinaafter a drop of a few minutes.
However, hopes of finding survivors faded almost a day after the crash of this Boeing 737-800, which may be China’s deadliest air disaster in almost three decades, the AFP news agency reported.
The craft lost more than 26,000 feet (about 8,000 meters) in just three minutes, before crashing into a mountainside.
The airline acknowledged that people on board the flight, which linked the city of Kunming (southwest) with Guangzhou (south), had died, but still did not offer more details.
President Xi Jinping called for a thorough investigation so that “the causes of the accident can be determined as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, rescue teams continued to work in the rural area of the Guangxi region, where the incident occurred.
There burned remains of the plane and traces of the fire that causedrescuers told AFP.
One of them speculated that the passengers had been “totally incinerated” due to the intensity of the flames.
A resident of the area, who only gave his surname Ou, recounted having heard a “noise like thunder” on Monday afternoon, followed by a virulent explosion in the surrounding hills.
Flight MU5735, which took off from Kunming shortly after 1:00 p.m. (3 in Argentina), “lost contact when it was flying over the city of Wuzhou,” according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
According to specialized flight tracker FlightRadar24, the aircraft lost nearly 21,250ft (6,477m) in just one minute before disappearing from radar screens.
Then, after a brief ascent, it plummeted again, at 1,410m, according to the tracker, to 983m above the ground.
