By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Friday it was assisting Chinese investigators with the download of the cockpit voice recorder in Washington from an China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet as it sent a team of investigators to China.
The U.S. safety board told Reuters it was helping the Civil Aviation Administration of China "with the download of the cockpit voice recorder from China Eastern Flight 5735 in our lab in Washington."
China's decision to send a key piece of evidence to Washington for assistance shows the urgency of the investigation at a time when two nations have been at odds at other issues.
The plane crashed into a mountainside in southern China on March 21 killing all 132 on board and was mainland China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years. Recovery crews on Sunday found the second black box - the flight data recorder - in the wreckage.
The cockpit voice recorder will likely provide investigators with details of communications between the flight's three pilots, which is one more than is normally required on board the Boeing plane.