US investigators set to head to China to join Guangxi jet crash probe

CHICAGO • A team of aeroplane accident investigators and technical experts from the United States could head to China this week to help unravel the mysterious crash of a Boeing jet earlier this month, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

The Chinese government has issued visas to NTSB investigators, along with technical advisers for the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, the NTSB said on Twitter. Engine maker CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and France's Safran, will support the probe but is not planning to travel.

A Boeing 737-800 operated by China Eastern Airlines went down in the southern region of Guangxi on March 21 while flying from Kunming to Guangzhou.

All 132 passengers and crew on board perished in the tragedy, the nation's first commercial jetliner crash in more than a decade.

The US team has been supporting the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which is leading the investigation. Under a United Nations treaty, the country where a crash occurs leads the investigation, while representatives from nations in which the plane and its components were manufactured have a right to participate.

The plane plummeted from its cruise altitude of 8,840m, levelled off once and then appeared to fall straight down. Chinese state media has said the crash left a crater 20m deep in a muddy hillside.

Chinese authorities have recovered the jet's black boxes, containing cockpit voice and flight data recorders and about 36,000 fragments of wreckage, so far.

Some parts of the data recorder were severely damaged, according to China's regulators. That could complicate the task of retrieving and deciphering any information inside.

BLOOMBERG