Rescuers conduct search and rescue work at the site of Monday’s plane crash
(Picture: AP)Chinese officials have confirmed that all 132 people on board a China Eastern flight which crashed on Monday have died.
The announcement on Saturday at a news conference was followed by a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the tragedy.
State media has reported that 120 of the victims have been identified through DNA analysis.
Flight MU5735 was travelling from the city of Kunming in southwestern China at 29,000 feet when it suddenly nosedived into a mountainous area shortly before it would have started its descent to the airport of Guangzhou.
The cause of the crash remained a mystery on Saturday, officials said.
An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply, Chinese authorities said.
While the cockpit voice recorder was discovered on Wednesday, a search is still ongoing for a second black box from the plane which may help shed light on why it crashed.
Excavators of the crash site are also seeking the data module from the flight data recorder itself.
Workers wearing knee-high rubber boots used shovels and other hand tools to sift through the 65 foot deep pit left by the plane’s crash.
Debris and other items were collected in dozens of rectangular, mud-stained plastic containers.
However, muddy conditions in the rainy Guizhou region hampered the search, with one excavator stopping work after getting partially stuck, state broadcaster CCTV said.
China Eastern, one of China’s four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their 737-800 aircraft, a total of 223 planes.
The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign there was anything wrong.
No key compounds from common explosives have been detected in the crash debris, officials have also said.
