Rescue work continues after passenger plane crash

Photo taken with a mobile phone shows pieces of a crashed passenger plane's wreckage found at the crash site in Tengxian County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, March 21, 2022. (Xinhua)

NANNING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Rescue work continued on Tuesday after a passenger plane with 132 people aboard crashed in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Monday afternoon.

Over 2,000 people have been sent to the site as part of the rescue efforts.

Since the site of the crash is located in a mountain forest, the search for the black box relies on both drones and rescue staff.

Zhu Xiaodong, a rescuer with a drone rescue center in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province and also the destination of the plane, said at the site that it is difficult to carry out rescue work as there are only a few paths leading to the site.

At around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, light rain fell over the rescue site. The local meteorological department forecast that more rain would hit the area from Tuesday to Thursday, which might adversely affect the search efforts.

The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming and was bound for Guangzhou, crashed into a mountainous area near Molang Village in Tengxian County in the city of Wuzhou at 2:38 p.m. Monday, causing a mountain fire.