Chinese authorities have revealed that all 132 victims of the passenger jet that crashed in South-West China last week Monday, have been identified via DNA testing.
This was disclosed during an official news conference on Monday.
Sequel to the accident, public security authorities across the 20 provincial-level regions were mobilised to identify the victims by collecting DNA samples of those on board and their relatives, said an official with the Ministry of Public Security, Liu Kaihui.
He said that 20 DNA experts had conducted DNA testing and analysis of the samples, and the identity of the final victim was confirmed on Monday morning.
The Boeing 737 aircraft, which departed from Kunming in Yunnan Province for Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, crashed in Tengxian County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on March 21.
It was also learnt that China, hitherto, had enjoyed an enviable air safety record in recent years in a country crisscrossed by newly built airports and serviced by new airlines established to match the country’s breakneck growth over the last few decades.
A Henan Airlines flight crashed in North-Eastern Heilongjiang province in 2010, killing at least 42 out of 92 people on board although the final toll was never confirmed, and it was the last Chinese commercial passenger flight crash that caused civilian casualties.
The deadliest Chinese commercials flight crash was a China North-West Airlines crash in 1994 which killed all 160 onboard.
NAN