The cause of China Eastern Boeing 737-800’s crash has not yet been determined and officials have not ruled out any possible scenarios– which can range from terrorist attacks, weather-related events, pilot suicide or illness, media reports suggest.

The flying crew of the flight included two pilots, one of them being China’s most experienced commercial aircraft pilots, Bloomberg reported citing Chinese media reports. 

Also Read: Explained: What are the latest clues in China’s plane crash?

Chinese officials said that one of the captains had 6,709 hours in the 737 models and a total of 31,769 flying hours. The other pilot had 556 hours of flying hours experience.

What are the experts saying?

While no official reason has been disclosed by the authorities, Australian aviation expert Neil Hansford said that it is unlikely that the crash was caused by a technical error.

“I think aircraft technical failure can be ruled out and it will be an external event … I would get on a Boeing 737-800 in an instant with an Australian carrier, so my suggestion would be it won’t be Boeing or aircraft technical related”, Hansford told news.com.au.

Meanwhile, the search party deployed to the crash site has found one of the two black boxes so far, while the search for the other one is still underway. 

Also Read: China plane crash: Search operations suspended as rain washes away debris

Cockpit voice recorders can capture voices, audio alerts and background sounds from the engine or even switches being moved. The flight data recorder stores information about the plane’s airspeed, altitude and direction up or down, as well as pilot actions and the performance of important systems.

What do we know so far about the crash?

The Boeing 737-800 was cruising at 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) when it suddenly nose-dived into a remote mountainous area on Monday, setting off a fire in the surrounding forest that could be seen in NASA satellite images. No survivors have been found.