One of the flight recorders of MU5735 that crashed on March 21 has been found and sent to Beijing for data retrieval and analysis.
This recorder was buried in dirt some 30 meters away from the center of the impact crater when the rescuers found it at about 16:30 local time on March 23.
According to the investigators at scene, the recorder's exterior is badly damaged but the data storage part appears intact. It's likely the CVR (cockpit voice recorder).
The rescuers have covered the area of about 28 square meters around the impact scene. Pieces of crashed airplane and human remains found at the scene have been handed over to the investigation teams.
The search and rescue was slowed down by heavy rains.
In another press briefing a few hours earlier, the investigation team confirmed that the weather condition was good when the crash was happening.
The chair of board of China Eastern Airlines, of which MU5735 belonged to, confirmed that, according to the maintenance and inspection records of the Boeing 737-800 lost in crash, the airplane was in good condition and met the requirements for airworthiness before taking off.
The pilot crew all had valid licenses for flight and certificates for health conditions. They were in good health physically. The capitain had flown 6709 hours. The first co-pilot had 3176 hours [31769 hours - this must be a typo by Guancha's editor here]. The second co-pilot had 556 hours. So far they have not been found having had issues or problems related to either work or family.
