132 stricken plane passengers dead

Beijing — All 132 people aboard the plane that crashed into a mountainside in southern China this week have been confirmed dead, the country’s civil aviation authority said yesterday.

Dozens of victims’ relatives have been waiting for days as rescue teams combed heavily forested slopes for plane debris and signs of survivors from Monday’s disaster near the city of Wuzhou, Guangxi province.

While no cause has yet been determined, online tracking data showed the plane rapidly dropped from an altitude of about 8,900 to 2,400 metres in just over a minute.

“All 123 passengers and nine crew members of flight MU5735 of China Eastern airlines have been killed on board on March 21,” Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told a press conference.

“The identity of 120 victims has been determined by DNA identification.”