[Rescue workers walk at the site where a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane flying from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed, in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. (File photo by= Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)]

BEIJING: China has completed the main search and rescue work at the site of a China Eastern Airlines plane crash last week, and plans to complete a preliminary report within 30 days of the event, an aviation official said on Thursday (Mar 31), Reuters reported.
 
A final report into the crash of the Boeing 737-800 will be completed and made public after the investigation is concluded, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) safety head Zhu Tao told reporters. The plane crashed into a mountainside in southern China on March 21, killing all 132 people on board. Under international rules, a 30-day report must be lodged with the UN aviation agency ICAO but it does not need to be public. A final report is due within a year of the crash, though sometimes it can take longer.
 
CAAC investigators are also working to decode the data from both the black boxes, he added. Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board are set to travel to China to support the CAAC's investigation into mainland China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years. Over 40,000 pieces of aircraft wreckage and debris have been found and a majority of the pieces have been transported to a hangar, Zhu said.