Downed Chinese Airplane’s Flight Recorder Found
Searchers recovered the flight recorder from the wreckage of a Chinese Boeing 737 that crashed Tuesday, but it was badly damaged, dimming hopes that it would reveal why the plane crashed, official news reports said Thursday.
All 141 people aboard were killed when the China Southern Airlines jetliner, on a flight from Canton, hit a mountain near the tourist city of Guilin in southeastern China.
Aviation officials so far have said nothing about the progress of the investigation into China’s worst reported air disaster.
The New China News Agency has said that witnesses reported seeing smoke coming from the jetliner before it hit the mountain.
The Yangcheng Evening News of Canton quoted other unidentified witnesses as saying something dropped from the plane just before the crash. The Beijing Youth News quoted unidentified provincial aviation officials as suggesting that foggy weather was the cause.
The victims included two Spaniards, a Canadian, a Macao resident and nine Taiwanese. The rest were from China.
Relatives began arriving in Guilin on Wednesday. China has said it will offer compensation but has not said how much.
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