No survivors found in China Eastern Airlines plane crash, says state media

More than 18 hours after the deadly crash of the China Eastern plane carrying 132 people, state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday morning said that no survivors have been found even as the search of the scattered wreckage continued.

The China Eastern plane crashed a day earlier in a forested mountainous area in China's worst air disaster in a decade.

"Wreckage of the plane was found at the scene, but up until now, none of those aboard the plane with whom contact was lost have been found," said state broadcaster CCTV.

The Boeing 737-800 crashed near the city of Wuzhou in the Guangxi region while flying from Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan to the industrial center of Guangzhou along the east coast. It ignited a fire big enough to be seen on NASA satellite images.

The crash created a deep pit in the mountainside, Xinhua news agency reported, citing rescuers. The report said drones and a manual search would be used to try to find the black boxes, which hold the flight data and cockpit voice recorders essential to crash investigations.

China Eastern Flight 5735 was traveling 455 knots (523 mph, 842 kph) at around 29,000 feet when it entered a steep and fast dive around 2:20 p.m. local time, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.

The plane plunged to 7,400 feet before briefly regaining about 1,200 feel in altitude, then dove again.

The plane stopped transmitting data 96 seconds after starting to fall.

The plane was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said. It was about an hour into the flight, and nearing the point at which it would begin descending into Guangzhou, when it pitched downward.