东航飞行事故：遇难者身份鉴定和DNA检测比对工作已全面展开
Experts from public security departments have begun examining the DNA of human remains at the site where a China Eastern Airlines jet crashed on Monday in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a local police chief said on Friday.
▲Search and rescue work continues on Friday at the crash site of China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 in Tengxian county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. LU BOAN/ZHOU HUA/XINHUA
More than 236 experts were engaged in the painstaking work of collecting biometric information at the site, examining DNA and identifying victims, said Lao Gaojin, head of the wuzhou public security bureau, at a news conference in Wuzhou on Friday afternoon.
"As of 3 pm Friday, we have collected 18 fingerprint samples from the human remains and 101 items of passengers' belongings," Lao said. He added that the search area was further expanded on Friday to 200,000 square meters.
China Eastern Flight MU5735 left Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, at 1:11 pm Monday with 132 people onboard and was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, at 3:05 pm. Air traffic controllers lost track of the plane over Wuzhou at 2:21 pm.
Zhu Tao, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's aviation safety office, said that although no survivors have been found yet, the search and rescue teams have not given up hope.
Huang Shangwu, a Guangxi Fire and Rescue Brigade officer at the crash site, told China Daily that muddy conditions caused by previous heavy rainfall posed great challenges to the search and rescue work.
"Also, because the site is in the mountains covered by forest, some of the plants are taller than the members of the rescue team, and there are some very steep slopes. But despite the difficulties, we are determined to comb the area thoroughly and to continue to look for survivors," Huang said on Thursday.
Liu Xiaodong, head of China Eastern's publicity department, said whether the airline will publish the passenger manifest depends on the wishes of the passengers' relatives.
"Some airlines choose to publish the manifest after accidents on international flights so they can establish contact with the relatives of the passengers from different countries. Since China Eastern was able to reach the relatives of all the passengers within 24 hours of the crash, we will fully respect their will and privacy in deciding whether to publish the manifest."
By 10 am Friday, 375 relatives of passengers had come to the crash site to pay their respects. The collection of DNA samples from the passengers' direct relatives has been carried out, Zhu said.
In addition to searching for survivors, another key task is to recover the second of the two flight recorders, or black boxes, from the Boeing 737-800 at the crash site near the village of Molang, Tengxian county, Zhu said.
The cockpit voice recorder, was found on Wednesday near the point of impact, and it has been sent to a laboratory in Beijing for decoding and analysis.
"We plan to excavate the core area of the crash site in an attempt to find the other black box," Zhu said. The search team is making its best efforts to find the aircraft's flight data recorder, he said, because information on it would offer vital clues to the cause of the crash.
As required by international standards, a preliminary report in Chinese and English on the tragic accident must be sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization within 30 days of the crash, Mao Yanfeng, director of the CAAC's disaster investigation agency, said.
记者：崔佳 石睿鹏
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