[In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers conduct search and rescue work at the core site of Monday's plane crash in Tengxian County, southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Friday, March 25, 2022. (Photo by=Lu Boan/Xinhua via AP)]

BEIJING: Construction excavators dug into a crash site Saturday (Mar 26) in the search for wreckage, remains and the second black box from a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 that nosedived into a mountainside in southern China this week with 132 people on board.
 
They have found an emergency location transmitter from the plane that had been close to where the second black box - the flight data recorder - had been installed, Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told reporters on Saturday. The team is also seeking the data module from the flight data recorder itself. But muddy conditions in the rainy region is hampering the search. Pumps were used to drain water and one excavator stopped working after getting partially stuck, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Workers wearing knee-high rubber boots used shovels and other hand tools to sift through the earthen slopes in a 20m-deep pit left by the plane. Debris and other items were collected in dozens of rectangular, mud-stained plastic containers. No survivors have been found, and the cause of the crash remained a mystery. An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said.