Heavy rain in southern China on Wednesday halted the search for victims and flight information black boxes that could tell why a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane plunged into a mountainside two days earlier with 132 people on board.
Rain water was filling the depression in the soft soil caused by the impact of the crash, state television reported, and the local weather bureau said there were risks of landslides, torrents and high winds as conditions deteriorated in the mountains of Guangxi region.
The wet weather was forecast to last for the rest of the week.
Flight MU5735 was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast, when the Boeing 737-800 jet suddenly plunged from cruising altitude at about the time when it would normally start to descend ahead of its landing.
The cause of the crash is yet to be determined, with aviation authorities warning that their investigation would be very difficult because of the severe damage to the aircraft.
Desperate and grief stricken relatives of people who had been on board visited the crash site on Wednesday. Among them was a retiree surnamed Zhang from Shenzhen whose eyes filled with tears as he told Reuters that his nephew was on the doomed flight.
“I hope the country can thoroughly investigate this matter and find out whether it was the manufacturer’s fault or it was a maintenance problem,” Zhang said.
