Recovery crews have found the second black box - the flight data recorder - from the wreckage of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed into a mountainside in southern China.
Flight MU5735, with 132 people on board, was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when it dived from cruising altitude at about the time when it should have started its landing descent.
In a late night news conference yesterday, officials announced that all of the people onboard, including nine crew members, were confirmed dead.
The other black box - the cockpit voice recorder - was found on Wednesday, and has been sent to Beijing for examination by experts.
The second black box was dug out of a slope at the crash site in muddy conditions after rain in recent days, state media reported.
The device was recovered 40 metres from the point of impact of the crash and 1.5 metres beneath the surface of the ground, according to state media, and has been sent to Beijing for checks.
The crash was the deadliest air disaster in mainland China since 1994, when a China Northwest Airlines flight from Xian to Guangzhou crashed, killing all 160 people on board.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane briefly appeared to pull out of its nosedive before resuming its plunge to earth.
FlightRadar24 data showed the aircraft was plummeting at a rate of 31,000 feet per minute.
Authorities said the pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers and nearby planes during the rapid descent.
It was too soon to determine the cause of the crash, and crashes are usually the result of a combination of factors, experts say.
China is leading the crash investigation. The United States has also been invited to take part, as the Boeing 737-800 was designed and manufactured there.
The US National Transportation Safety Board said it was working with US and Chinese authorities to resolve visa and Covid quarantine issues before participating.
