According to anonymous US officials close to the investigation, so far, there has been no evidence of technical malfunction, leading safety experts to again question if the plane, which was seen by witnesses to nosedive to the ground, was intentionally crashed.
Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington, both pilots and cousins attempted the stunt on Monday, and while Aikins was able to safely land his swapped Cessna 182, Farrington was forced to parachute land as his aircraft crashed into the Arizona desert.
The data recorder was found on Sunday morning at around 9:20am local time, according to Chinese state media, and CCTV reported it was located beneath a 1.5-meter layer of soil at the crash site.
The damages have made it unclear as to whether it is the flight data recorder or the cockpit recorder, but according to Mao Yanfeng, the director of the accident division of the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC), there is a current investigation to retrieve the other one.
The aircraft, registration B-1791, was performing flight MU5735 from Kunming in Yunnan province to Guangzhou in Guangdong Province on Monday with 123 passengers and 9 crew onboard, when its altitude started to quickly drop.
Leonardo has confirmed the death of one of two pilots operating a Aermacchi M-346 Master, which crashed on the morning of Wednesday, 16 March.
