36 hours after China Eastern Airlines' Boeing 737 crashed on the afternoon of March 21, no survivors have been found or the plane's black box has been found.
Investigators of the accident admitted that they still do not know why the plane crashed almost vertically at a speed of 560km/h. The speed of the crash caused many pieces of aircraft debris, twisted metals and passenger belongings to be scattered throughout the forest and no survivors were found nearly 36 hours after the accident.
This is China's worst aviation disaster in 30 years, a country with a fairly high aviation safety record.
Investigators are facing "very high" difficulties due to the serious damage. Hoan Cau Times quoted Mr. Zhu Tao - Director of Aviation Safety at the Department of Civil Aviation of China - said: "The aircraft is seriously damaged in the collision and investigators will face many difficulties. With existing information, we still have no clear assessment of the cause of the accident" - Mr. Zhu said.
Zhu added that the pilots did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic control during the rapid landing and the focus now is on searching for the plane's black box.
The search teams worked through the night, using hands, hoes, dogs and other equipment to search for survivors, CCTV reported.
The steep, rough terrain and debris scattered over a large area have complicated the search for black boxes, CCTV and Tan Hoa said.
Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Air Safety Organization, told Al Jazeera that it was too early to have any valid answers about the cause of the crash.
The investigators will look at every aspect of the flight, including any technical or structural problems, Hassan said. They will review the aircraft's maintenance history as well as the pilot training records. Boeing is expected to be part of the investigation to provide the necessary professional knowledge. Investigators are looking for black boxes to find out exactly what happened.
Chinese media said the drone was used to search for debris scattered on both sides of the mountain where the plane crashed.
questions have been raised about the cause of the crash, which caused the plane to fall from nearly 9,000 meters to 6,000 meters in just over a minute before crashing into harsh terrain in southern China.
China Eastern Airlines has officially admitted that some people on the plane, traveling from Kunming city to Guangzhou, were killed but has not yet announced that all passengers and crew were killed.
Meanwhile, at Quang Chau airport, staff supported the relatives of 123 passengers and 9 crew members. They are waiting for news.
A Weibo user wrote that he was a friend of a crew member on a crashed plane. I will miss you forever - this person wrote, describing his friend as extremely enthusiastic about his new job this year.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said he was "shocked" by the accident and called for "absolutely safe" travel by air.
Deputy Prime Minister Luu Hac visited the scene of the accident to supervise the rescue work and investigate.
It is known that China's most tragic commercial plane crash was the accident of China Northwest Airlines in 1994, which killed all 160 people on board.
