SEOUL: Black boxes containing flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed Jeju Air flight stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea’s transport ministry said on Saturday.
On December 29, a Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Moan, South Korea, carrying 181 passengers and crew when it landed belly-up at Moan Airport and burst into flames after hitting a concrete barrier. Exploded into a shell.
It was the worst air disaster ever on South Korean soil.
“Analysis revealed that both CVR and FDR data were not recorded during the four-minute period that led to the collision with the aircraft’s localizer,” the transport ministry said in a statement, referring to the two recording devices. .
A localizer is a barrier at the end of the runway that helps aircraft land and was blamed for increasing the severity of the crash.
The damaged flight data recorder was deemed unrecoverable for data extraction by South Korean officials, who sent it to the US for analysis at a US National Transportation Safety Board laboratory.
But it appears data was lost in the boxes tracking the last moments of the flight, leaving authorities scrambling to figure out what happened.
“Plans are in place to investigate the cause of the data loss during the ongoing accident investigation,” the ministry said.
South Korean and US investigators are still investigating the cause of the crash, which prompted a wave of national mourning with memorials across the country.
‘commitment’
Investigators said the boxes were important to their investigation, but added that they would not try to find out what caused the crash.
“The investigation will be conducted through examination and analysis of various data. The committee is committed to do its best to determine the exact cause of the accident,” the ministry said.
Investigators have pointed to bird strikes, faulty landing gear and runway obstruction as possible problems.
The pilot warned of a bird strike before exiting the first landing, then crashed after the landing gear failed to deploy on the second attempt.
This week, lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol told reporters that “feathers were found” in one of the plane’s recovered engines, but cautioned that bird strikes do not immediately damage the engine.
Authorities have raided offices at Moan Airport where the crash occurred, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city and Jeju Air’s office in the capital, Seoul.
He also prevented the chief executive of Jeju Air from leaving the country.
The rival parties later formed a joint task force to investigate the crash, while Transport Minister Park Sang-woo offered his resignation this week.
“As the minister responsible for aviation safety, I feel a great deal of responsibility regarding this tragedy,” he said.