Flight MU5735 'Black Box' Found In Severely Damaged Condition As Crash Theories Emerge

As the mystery continues into what caused the China Eastern plane crash, an official said Wednesday one of two black boxes was found in a severely damaged condition.

A Civil Aviation Authority of China official told reporters the recorder was so damaged they were unable to tell whether it was the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder, Live Mint reported.

Finding the black boxes are key, as data retrieved from them can help reveal the final moments and cause of the crash.

The Boeing 737-800 jet went down Monday with 132 people on board while en route to Guangzhou after taking off from Kunming, in the southwest. The plane crashed into a mountain, causing a fire. No survivors have been found so far. Flight data revealed the plane plunged out of the sky at close to the speed of sound before slamming into the mountain.

Recovering the so-called black boxes and retrieving its data would help understand the reason behind the plane's nosedive. It could also unravel the mystery as to why the pilots didn’t respond to calls from air-traffic controllers after the plane tipped into its nosedive, authorities said, according to reports.

The families of those on board the jetliner have received no answers so far from the airline. Video footage widely circulated on Chinese social media on the day of the crash appeared to show the plane in a near-vertical dive.

An Australian aviation expert said Tuesday it was unlikely a technical issue caused the crash.

“It is very unlikely the pilot passed out as the non-flying pilot would have been able to very safely take over the flying and land the aircraft,” aviation expert Neil Hansford explained. “Likely scenarios include pilot suicide, aircraft mid-air collision with military aircraft (they don’t have transponders like civil aircraft), [flight MU5735] was struck by a missile or an on-board explosion.”

“My tipping is a human-induced event or bought down by rogue missile. Debris looks like MH117 over Ukraine, and the Chinese are providing too much information this time which is uncharacteristic," he was quoted as saying by News.com.au.