THE main impact point of the plane crash has been basically determined, said Zhu Tao, head of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) at a press conference held Thursday.

Most of the plane wreckage were scattered within a radius of about 30 meters of the main impact point and the depth from the surface extends to about 20 meters underground, Zhu added.

A suspected wreckage piece, 1.3 meters long and 10 cm at its widest, was also found in a farmland around 10 km away from the crash site, said Zheng Xi, head of the fire brigade of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, a total of 183 pieces of aircraft wreckage, some remains of victims and 21 pieces of belongings of victims had been found and handed over to the investigation team, Zheng said.

Pieces of engine wreckage of the passenger plane have also been found, Zheng said.

One of the two black boxes of the plane has been recovered. The recovered black box was sent to a decoding laboratory in Beijing on Wednesday night and the data downloading and analysis work is underway, according to the press briefing .

The plane with 132 aboard crashed on the afternoon of March 21 in a village in Guangxi’s Tengxian County. No survivors have been found so far.

China Eastern Airlines and its subsidiaries have temporarily grounded 223 Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the accident, Liu Xiaodong, head of the airline’s publicity department, told the press briefing.

All grounded aircraft are undergoing checks and maintenance according to the highest safety standard to ensure that they meet the airworthiness requirements, Liu said. He added that the airline has launched a sweeping safety overhaul following the air crash.

All other passenger planes of China Eastern Airlines, currently in operation, meet the airworthiness requirements of Chinese aviation authorities, Liu said.

(Xinhua)