Why, However, We Don't Yet Know

Salvage crews continued to scour a frozen lake in the Chinese city of Baotou Tuseday, looking for clues into Sunday's crash of a China Eastern CRJ-200. But even though they've obtained little physical evidence, Chinese authorities have ruled out the possibility of sabotage.

As ANN has reported this week, witnesses told authorities the aircraft exploded in flight before impacting the frozen surface of the lake. The accident took the lives of 54 people -- 53 on the regional jet and a ticket seller who was plying his trade in the park near the crash site. The aircraft had just taken off from Baotou's airport en route to Shanghai.

How Chinese crash investigators came to the conclusion that sabotage was not involved in Sunday morning's accident remains unclear. Search teams have yet to find the plane's flight recorders. Nor have they found crucial parts of the aircraft itself -- the left wing, for instance, and the right main landing gear.

Sunday's crash was the deadliest aviation accident China had seen since May, 2002, when 112 people lost their lives as a commercial aircraft went down in the ocean near the city of Dalian.

FMI: www.caac.gov.cn