But they have found an emergency location transmitter from the plane that had been close to where the second black box – the flight data recorder – had been installed, Zhu Tao, director of the aviation safety office of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told reporters.

The team is also seeking the data module from the flight data recorder itself.

The other black box, the cockpit voice recorder, was found on Wednesday and has been sent to Beijing for examination by experts.

Flight MU5735 was travelling from the southwestern city of Kunming to Guangzhou on the coast on Monday when the Boeing 737-800 plummeted from cruising altitude to crash in a heavily forested area of Guangxi region.

No survivors have been found.

A total of 120 people have been identified from samples taken from the site, said Zheng Xi, head of Guangxi’s fire and rescue department.

None of the main components of common explosives were detected in the crash debris, he said.