SEOUL: South Korean investigators probing the Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people in the worst plane crash on its soil said on Wednesday that they had identified one of the recovered black boxes. Will send to USA for analysis.
The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday when it issued a May Day call and landed belly-up before hitting an obstacle and bursting into flames, killing all but two flight attendants. All persons were killed.
South Korean and American investigators, including those from Boeing, have been searching the crash site in southwestern Moan since the disaster.
“The faulty flight data recorder has been deemed unrecoverable for data extraction locally,” said South Korea’s vice minister for civil aviation, Jo Jong-wan. It was agreed today to transfer it to the US for analysis in cooperation with the US National Transportation Safety Board.
Joe previously said that both of the plane’s black boxes had been recovered, and that “initial extraction has been completed” for the cockpit voice recorder.
“Based on this initial data, we plan to begin converting it to audio format,” he said, meaning investigators will be able to hear the pilots’ final conversations.
Joe said the second black box, the flight data recorder, was “found with a missing connector”. Officials initially pointed to a bird strike as a possible cause of the crash, but later said the investigation was also looking into a concrete barrier at the end of the runway, which Boeing captured in dramatic video. The 737-800 was shown crashing before catching fire. .
He also said a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 models operated by local carriers was examining their landing gear after questions over possible mechanical failure in the crash.
Director-General of Aviation Safety Policy Yoo Kyung-soo said the ongoing inspections were “primarily focusing on the landing gear, which in this case failed to deploy properly”.
Local media reported that the landing gear of Jeju Air Flight 2216 was properly engaged before the second failure in the first failed landing attempt.
“The accident investigation board is likely to examine the matter through a comprehensive review of various testimonies and evidence during the investigation process,” the land ministry, which oversees civil aviation, said in a briefing.
At Moan Airport, hundreds of people lined up Wednesday — a public holiday in the south — to pay their respects at a memorial altar set up in honor of the victims.
Local media reported that so many people flocked to the memorial that queues stretched for hundreds of meters and overloaded the local cell phone network.
Local authorities sent out a security alert asking mourners to go to a different memorial, as the one at the airport was too busy. Other shrines for the victims have been set up across the country.