No survivors found

“So far, rescuers have not found any survivors,” Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said.

This is the first official statement from Chinese aviation authorities about the possibility that all 132 passengers and crew on China Eastern flight MU5735 were killed.

On March 21, a Boeing 737 bearing the number MU5735 of China Eastern Airlines crashed more than an hour after taking off from Changshui International Airport, Kunming in Yunnan province at 13:15.

The plane is expected to land at 3:05 p.m. on the same day in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province. However, at 14:21, the plane lost contact.

China Eastern has not yet announced the death toll in the incident, but sends condolences to the relatives of the passengers and crew in the accident.

Hours after the crash, the airline’s official website also turned black and white to mourn the tragedy.

Chinese rescuers are still racing against time to search in hopes of finding any survivors among the 132 passengers and crew members.

The search work faced many difficulties when three sides of the plane crash area were mountains and there was only a small road to access. Due to the complex mountainous terrain, the rescue force could not deploy heavy machinery, mainly relying on human power and drones.

On March 22, the temperature in the area where the plane crashed decreased, causing cold weather and strong winds, affecting rescue work.

According to Chinese media, parts of the Boeing 737-800 were scattered on the mountainside on fire after the crash. Rescuers have recovered the wreckage of the plane, along with identity cards, wallets, bank cards and some burned items of the victims as well as the victim’s body.