THE black boxes, or the flight-data recorders, of the plane that crashed on November 21 in Baotou, a city in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, were finally found at noon Wednesday after three days of salvage operations.

The first one, pink in colour, suffered serious damage to its outer shell when it was found at 11:40 am. It recorded the dialogues of crew members.

The second one, recovered about an hour later, contains the flight data.

The Bombardier CRJ-200 of China Eastern Airlines (CEA) was reported crashed into a lake at Baotou, seconds after it took off for Shanghai on the morning of November 21.

By Wednesday afternoon, the officially announced death toll was 54, of which 53 people were aboard and one on the ground.

The latest news reported that a 53-year-old woman on the ground may also have died in the accident. She was doing morning exercises near the crash site when the accident occurred and has been missing ever since. Her daughter told the Beijing News that she saw among the ruins pieces of clothes belonging to her mother. A DNA test has been made, but the results have not been revealed.

It was China’s deadliest air crash in more than two years. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

“The black boxes will help in finding the answer, but as the flight only lasted seconds, what help they can give may be limited,?said an earlier report aired by CCTV.

Many victims?relatives and journalists had raised doubt about the plane’s early takeoff, which they suspected may have affected the pre-flight safety examination. That was later declared irrelevant to the crash by the State Council’s investigation team at a latest press conference.

“It is normal for a flight to take off 10 minutes in advance if all the passengers are on board and the safety examination is finished, and is in compliance with international practice,?news from the press conference said.

Doomed CRJ-200

According to CEA, the doomed CRJ-200 was put into use in 2002, and had only flown about 5,000 hours. The aircraft commander Wang Pin, who died in the accident along with five other crew members, was a “very qualified commander.?He had flown safely for nearly 10,000 hours.

In 2001, when CEA decided to import the CRJ-200 airplanes from Canada, Wang was sent to Canada for special training, and he started flying CRJ-200 after that.

“The crash happened only seconds after it took off,?said a deputy manager of CEA surnamed Wu when interviewed by the Beijing News. “The crew members didn’t send back any information during that time, and the staff on the conning tower only saw the plane incline and crash to the ground.? The manager said the airplane didn’t exploded in the air but exploded when it hit the ground, in contrast to what some witnesses said.

In an earlier story from Xinhua News Agency, some witnesses said they heard an explosion before the plane hit the ground, and one described seeing “a big fireball?overhead.

All information about the airplane, including the data records during the pre-flight safety examination, has been sealed and won’t be publicized until the investigation is finished, the manager said.

A business insider said to the Hohhot-based newspaper Beifang Xinbao that based on his experiences, such an immediate explosion after takeoff was more possibly caused by mechanical failure or mistakes of the pilot.

Although the cause hasn’t been found yet, experts have excluded the possibility of terrorism or sabotage, as no such evidence was found.

For safety’s sake, starting November 23, all domestic airlines were ordered to ground their Bombardier CRJ-200 jetliners for inspection. Shanghai Airlines and China Eastern both have five CRJ planes and have cancelled their flights.

Experts in airworthiness are arriving in Baotou from other parts of the country to help investigate the air crash.

There is also news that Bombardier Canadian headquarter has sent an accident response team to China along with Canadian Government officials from the Transportation Safety Board.

Frightened witnesses

Li Xiuge, a resident living near the crash site, said she witnessed the whole crash process.

“I saw in front of my house a plane flying from the west to east,?she said when interviewed by the Beijing News.

The plane was flying very low and tilted to one side.

“It seems that it was having trouble flying,?she said. “It suddenly changed direction and appeared to head back to the airport. Then it quickly reversed direction again. In seconds, the plane crashed into the park with a deafening noise and huge fireball.? According to Li, if the plane had continued its direction toward the airport, it may have dropped into the densely populated residential area. “Many people in the neighbourhood guessed that the pilot chose to drop into the park to reduce the number of casualties,?she said.

Yu Zhan was probably nearest to the crash site when the accident occurred. An employee of Nanhai Park, the old man was roaming around the lake checking on the boats and visitors when suddenly a plane rushed into the park.

“It scraped the roof of the broadcast building, breaking the tree branches on the way, and finally dropped into a belt between ground and lake,?he said.

The following scene was “indescribably frightening.?Flaming pieces of the plane scattered on the lake and the yachts. Then an enormous explosion was heard.

“The shaking of the ground and the huge heat wave almost knocked me down,?Yu said.

“The crash site was dreadful,?a doctor in Baotou named Zhu Yongguang, who helped with the recovery work, said.

“Arms, legs and heads were seen scattered everywhere.? Two bodies were still hugging each other even though they had been scorched beyond recognition.

DNA tests

So far CEA has been in contact with the families of relatives of all victims. Some 300 relatives rushed to Baotou from different parts of the country. The relatives of one Indonesian victim was reported to have left for Baotou on November 23.

Blood samples have been collected among some relatives for DNA tests to identify the bodies.

The names of the victims have also been published. Among the 47 passengers, 38 were men and 9 were women. The oldest was 57, the youngest was 23.

Twenty-five passengers had bought insurance against aircraft accidents. Beneficiaries may receive up to 400,000 yuan (US$48,193) of compensation. Any compensation for the families of the other 22 passengers has not been determined.