Key task turns to cause of plane crash

Preliminary investigation report on Flight MU5735 expected within next 30 days

With search and rescue operations for China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 basically complete, the key task now is to find the cause of the fatal crash, a senior civil aviation safety official said on Thursday.

A preliminary report is expected within 30 days.

"Both flight recorders, or black boxes, from the aircraft were recovered within seven days after the crash, and the identification of all passengers was confirmed within eight days. Currently, the key search and rescue operations are almost concluded," Zhu Tao, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's aviation safety office, said at a news conference held in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Flight MU5735 left the southwestern city of Kunming, Yunnan province, at 1:11 pm on March 21 with 123 passengers and nine crew members onboard. Air traffic controllers lost track of the plane over Wuzhou at 2:21 pm. All people onboard were confirmed dead on Saturday.

Zhu said rescuers had found more than 49,000 pieces of debris, including key parts of the engines and wings. They are being disinfected, categorized and labeled for investigation, he added.

"We will not miss a single detail to get to the bottom of the cause of the accident, and discover the truth to prevent a similar accident from occurring," he said.

While decoding the black boxes, investigation teams have also conducted a preliminary probe on the crash site, the pattern of the debris and impact traces to determine the aircraft's flight path as well as the power of impact when it hit the ground. The teams have analyzed flight data recorded by air traffic control, he added.

Information on the aircraft, its cargo, passengers on board and their belongings has also been examined, Zhu said.

He added that according to international civil aviation agreements, a preliminary report on the accident will be completed within 30 days after the crash. After all the investigations are concluded, a full report will be made public.

With the investigation still ongoing, insurance companies have started to offer compensation related to the crash. As of Tuesday, 11 insurance companies had settled 14 claims worth a total compensation of 14.8 million yuan ($2.34 million) to victims' families, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

In addition, four property and casualty insurance companies underwriting the fuselage of Flight MU5735 had so far made advance payments totaling 116 million yuan to China Eastern Airlines, the commission said in a release on Wednesday, adding that it will make further efforts to advance follow-up work on the insurance claims.

Jiang Xueqing and Shi Ruipeng contributed to this story.