The search for the flight data recorder of the crashed China Eastern Airlines Corp. jet continued Friday, as authorities try to piece together what caused the Boeing Co. 737-800 NG to nosedive from the sky and into a hillside in southern China’s Guangxi region four days ago. 

More than 5,000 personnel have been working at the crash site, where parts of the aircraft have been retrieved, including the engine gearbox and some of the undercarriage on Friday. One piece of wreckage measuring 1.3 meters (4 feet) long was found over 6 miles away, suggesting the plane suffered at least some sort of breakup before impact. All 123 passengers and nine crew are presumed dead, making this China’s deadliest aviation disaster since 1994 if confirmed. 

The civil aviation regulator’s newspaper apologized for a WeChat post-Friday morning that said the flight data recorder had been found. The post was swiftly deleted and the paper later said its report was “untrue.” The cockpit voice recorder, which is the other black box, was retrieved Wednesday and is being analyzed in Beijing. 

Key Developments:

  • Engine among 183 plane parts found by searchers
  • Search area widened in the hunt for second black box
  • Cockpit voice recorder found and sent for analysis
  • Pilots didn’t answer calls from air-traffic control
  • Jet plunged at almost the speed of sound, data shows
  • The airline says pilots and the plane were fit before the flight

Communication Normal, No Mayday (5:30 p.m. HK)

Communication with the flight was normal prior to the crash and no emergency signal was sent, China Eastern representative Liu Xiaodong said at a briefing. 

Also at the briefing, Mao Yanfeng from the Civil Aviation Administration of China said there was no definite timeline for when the download of the cockpit voice recorder will be completed and data analysis carried out. 

Thousands of Personnel Deployed (5:05 p.m. HK)

Since the crash, China has sent more than 5,000 personnel and over 200 vehicles to the scene, where work to find the second black box continues, CAAC official Zhu Tao said at a briefing. No survivors have been found, he said. 

The engine gearbox and parts of the aircraft’s undercarriage have been found, officials said. 

Media Visit Near Crash Site (4:30 p.m. HK)

Media officials from Guangxi took foreign reporters near the crash site for the second time in as many days. Access for foreign journalists is still limited, however, given that the site they are being taken to is about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the crater made by the plane’s impact. 

The government is enforcing its strict Covid Zero rules around Wuzhou, requiring journalists to take a virus test at least once a day.

Sichuan Air Cargo Plane Mechanical Failure (3:52 p.m. HK)

A Sichuan Airlines cargo flight from Chongqing to Moscow had a mechanical failure after takeoff and returned to Chongqing, where it circled to consume fuel, the Global Times said in a Twitter post. The aircraft is an Airbus SE A300-243F, according to Flightradar24. The plane later landed safely, Xinhua said.

Access to Crash Site Restricted (3:05 p.m. HK)

Police have set up a checkpoint on a road about 40 kilometers from downtown Wuzhou in an area dotted with rice paddy fields, restricting media and public access to the crash site. 

Second Black Box Not Found (2:18 p.m. HK)

CAAC News, the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s newspaper, issued a statement on its WeChat account apologizing for an earlier “untrue” report that the second black box of the crashed China Eastern plane was located.

Footage From the Crash Scene (10:15 a.m. HK)

Xinhua continues to broadcast a live stream on Weibo from the crash site, where hundreds of people dressed in white protective gear are combing the scene, the entrance to which has been largely closed off with blue hoardings. The weather has cleared but the ground remains muddy.

Suspected Part Found Over 6 Miles Away (5:52 p.m. HK)

While most of the wreckage was found in an area 30 meters (98 feet) wide and 20 meters deep at the impact point of the crash, one suspected part measuring 1.3 meters long and 10 centimeters (4 inches) wide was discovered in farmland 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the crash site, Zheng Xi, head of the Guangxi fire-fighting rescue team, said at the briefing.

Officials Hold News Briefing in Wuzhou (5:30 p.m. HK)

Chinese officials gave more information on the search at a briefing, saying 183 pieces of the plane have been found as well as some human remains. The hunt for the second black box will be intensified, they said. CAAC’s head of safety, Zhu Tao, said it couldn’t be ruled out that the internal storage unit of the cockpit voice recorder found Wednesday might have been damaged in the crash.

As of 8 a.m., 305 relatives of 56 passengers had arrived in Guangxi. Asked if China will invite U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigators to join the probe, Zhu said efforts are for now focused on search and rescue and gathering evidence, and that “relevant parties” would be invited when the investigation phase begins.

Jet’s Flight History (5:25 p.m. HK)

The China Eastern aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 delivered to the carrier in 2015, had flown 8,986 times, Xinhua News Agency said. 

Sifting Through the Wreckage (4:45 p.m. HK)

Xinhua has a Weibo live-stream broadcast from deep in the crash site showing firefighters in orange overalls among the wreckage and debris, many with shovels. Another team of workers at the scene—dressed in white protective gear, masks, blue head covers, and gloves—is placing objects in plastic bags for examination. The rain has cleared but the ground is thick with mud, toppled trees and bamboo, as well as scattered remnants from the plane.

 CCTV reported that some parts of the aircraft have been found 255 meters away from the main crash site.

Crash May Dent Airlines’ Profitability: Fitch (3:52 p.m. HK)

Profitability in China’s aviation sector will come under pressure in the near term as higher oil prices raise costs and demand takes a hit from Covid control measures and the impact of the plane crash, Fitch Ratings said in a statement.

“Some Chinese domestic travelers may also switch to alternative forms of transport, such as high-speed rail, over the next one or two years,” it said.

Search Area Expanded Fivefold (3:07 p.m. HK)

The rescue area has been made five times bigger, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a rescue team leader. As of Wednesday evening, the search had already covered an area of 46,000 square meters, according to the report. Hundreds of people are involved in the search, along with dogs and drones. 

Engine Debris Found (2:45 p.m. HK)

Engine parts from the China Eastern aircraft have been found, CCTV reported, without elaborating. Footage from the crash site also showed some of the wing has been retrieved. 

The engines were manufactured by CFM, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Safran SA. CFM will be the technical adviser for any issues related to the engines, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has said.

China Flight Cancellations (1:56 p.m. HK)

Cancellation rates for domestic flights in China remain high, at 76% on Thursday. Of those, 68% were canceled at least a day in advance. Covid and related travel curbs have severely dented airline services in the country. The figure is compounded by China Eastern and its subsidiaries temporarily grounding more than 200 Boeing 737-800 NGs in response to the crash.

Expect a ‘Very Transparent’ Investigation (1:26 p.m. HK)

“We will have a very transparent investigation,” Airline Ratings Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, noting that crash investigators are renowned for working closely together and that the Chinese side has a “great reputation globally.”

“In the last 30 years, China has done an amazing job in building one of the greatest aviation networks in the world,” he added.