The NTSB confirmed on Tuesday it is assisting Chinese investigators with the review of the flight data recorder in a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 that crashed March 21 killing all 132 onboard. Reuters first reported Friday the NTSB was assisting the CAAC with the download of the cockpit voice recorder at the US lab in Washington. NTSB had repeatedly declined to answer questions about the status of the flight data recorder until Tuesday when it confirmed assistance with that recorder as well. The plane crashed into a mountainside in southern China on March 21 killing all 132 on board. It was mainland China's deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years. Heading to coastal Guangzhou from the southwestern city of Kunming, the plane dove from cruising altitude around the time it should have started its landing descent. The flight data recorder could shed light on the cause of the crash. The flight briefly appeared to pull out of its nosedive before resuming its plunge to earth, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. Its data showed the aircraft was plummeting 31,000 feet per minute.<br/>
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The Dutch minister of finance said on Tuesday that the proposed 2021 pay package for Air France-KLM's CEO was "incomprehensible" in a year when it lost E3.3b amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's unacceptable and what I really don't understand is that you could want this and that people think this is okay," Sigrid Kaag said in an interview with Dutch broadcaster RTL after the publication of the airline's annual report. This showed that Air France-KLM CE Ben Smith would receive several million euros in pay, benefits and annual and long-term bonuses in 2021, although the bonuses will be deferred. A spokesperson for Air France said that Smith's fixed pay has been unchanged since before the pandemic and noted that he will not receive any bonuses he has been awarded until Air France has repaid most of the bailout money it received during the pandemic. Kaag said the Dutch state, which bought a 14.3% stake in Air France-KLM in 2019 in order to exercise more influence over it, would vote against Smith's pay at the annual meeting in May. The Dutch government agreed a E3.4b bailout package of loans and loan guarantees for Air France's Dutch subsidiary KLM in 2020, as part of a wider bailout for Air France. Smith agreed to give up his bonus and a quarter of his salary in 2020 after an outcry over his pay in the Netherlands. <br/>