According to state media, no survivors have been recovered following China's worst flight tragedy in more than a decade.
As officials initiated an inquiry after the crash, relatives of the passengers gathered in the Guangzhou airport on Monday evening, waiting for any word of their loved ones. According to David Soucie, a former safety inspector with the US Federal Aviation Administration, "because to the apparent speed of the crash, there is little possibility anyone on board survived or that there will be clear remains left to identify" (FAA).
Boakyewaa Lawrencia 
According to Chinese official media, no survivors of a China Eastern Airlines plane crash have been found as search efforts entered their second day Tuesday.
The Boeing 737-800, carrying 132 people, crashed in a remote, hilly region of China's south on Monday afternoon as it traveled from Kunming to Guangzhou.
The cause of the incident is yet unknown, and authorities have not provided any other details about the victims.
According to the state-run China Youth Daily, investigators on the scene have not found the plane's so-called black boxes — flight data and cockpit voice recorders — which could provide important insights into how the catastrophe transpired due to challenging terrain and bad weather.
Following the disaster, photos and images aired by state media show massive plumes of smoke rising above the mountains. Search and rescue teams make their way through the dense undergrowth, which is littered with debris and plane components. Wallets, ID cards, and phone parts were among the personal items strewn about, according to China Youth Daily.
"Wreckage of the plane was located at the scene," state television CCTV reported Tuesday morning, citing rescue crews. "At this time, none of those missing aboard the jet have been found."
Over the city of Wuzhou, the jet lost communication with air traffic authorities. According to aircraft monitoring data from FlightRadar24, it was at a cruising altitude of 29,000 feet (approximately 8,900 meters) minutes before the accident. The jet then nosedived to a depth of more than 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) in less than two minutes.
A jet looks to be hurtling toward the forest, virtually vertical in its rapid descent, according to security footage from a mining firm near the disaster site. CNN is unable to verify the video's validity or that the aircraft is China Eastern Flight 5735, but the steep descent fits flight tracking data.
Witnesses said they saw a tremendous explosion, airplane pieces, and clothing twisted in the trees and swaths of the forests on fire.
A handwritten note outlining the significance of traditional jade jewelry was photographed and widely circulated online after it was recovered from the crash scene. The jewelry represents "a complete life, a smooth career, family happiness, inner serenity... which outlines people's hopes of life," according to the note, which elicited outpourings of grief on Chinese social media.
As officials initiated an inquiry after the crash, relatives of the passengers gathered in the Guangzhou airport on Monday evening, waiting for any word of their loved ones.
According to David Soucie, a former safety inspector with the US Federal Aviation Administration, "because to the apparent speed of the crash, there is little possibility anyone on board survived or that there will be clear remains left to identify" (FAA).
Investigation and search operation
"The fact that the President responded so forcefully and quickly tells me that they're taking this extremely seriously," Soucie said.
Following many aviation crashes in the 1990s and 2000s, China implemented a slew of new safety measures. Since the 2010 Henan Airlines catastrophe, which killed 44 of the 96 people on board, Monday's disaster marks the country's first deadly commercial flight crash.
According to the Guangxi Meteorological Bureau, a cold front is anticipated to approach soon, bringing heavy rain in the coming days.
According to Soucie, the former FAA inspector, it's still unclear what caused the plane to start falling - and we won't know more until officials can locate and study the jet's cockpit voice recorder, black box, and other crucial bits of data.
This is a typical procedure for aviation incidents involving a US-designed aircraft that occur outside of the United States.
According to CCTV, China Eastern Airlines is contacting all of the victims' families. Hundreds of buses and taxis have been dispatched by Wuzhou officials to transport family members.
"Dealing with the families is the most challenging part of being an accident investigator," Soucie added. "At this point, all the families want is to recover whatever they can from the accident victims. There won't be much for them to get in this scenario."
The plane was a Boeing 737-800, the most popular type of Boeing jet currently in service and the workhorse of many airlines' fleets. It had been in service since 2015 until the jet crashed on Monday.
According to CCTV, the airline will cancel all Boeing 737-800 flights. According to official media, other Chinese carriers will continue to use the same aircraft type.
The 737-800 is part of a Boeing jet family known as the 737-NG, which stands for "Next Generation". These planes have had safety issues cited by US regulators, although none of those rose to the level of requiring the planes to be grounded.
Boeing faced worldwide scrutiny following two tragic incidents involving its 737 Max, which superseded the 737-800, in 2018 and 2019. A fault in the design of a new stabilization mechanism, which the 737-800 lacks, was shown to be the cause of the crashes.
