On December 30, 2024, Muan, South Korea, the wreckage of the Jeju Air plane that overran the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport was located near the crashed concrete structure.
Kim Hong Gil | Reuters
The two black boxes above boeing company The plane involved in South Korea’s worst air crash stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, the Transportation Ministry said on Saturday.
South Korean investigators have previously said flight data and cockpit voice recorders were key to finding the cause of last month’s crash that killed 179 people.
The incident occurred about four minutes after the pilot of a passenger plane operated by Jeju Air reported the bird strike.
Authorities investigating the crash plan to analyze what caused the black box to stop recording, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the recorder was initially analyzed in South Korea and was sent to a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board laboratory when data was found to be missing.
Black box recorders collect pilot communications in the cockpit and the operation of aircraft systems in flight.
On December 29, Jeju Air 7C2216, which was flying from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, to Muan City in southwestern South Korea, landed on its belly and overran the runway of the regional airport, hit an embankment and caught fire. Only two people survived – the crew member sitting in the rear.
Two minutes before the pilot announced an emergency call for help, air traffic control issued a warning about “bird activity.”
Former Transport Ministry accident investigator Sim Jai-dong said the discovery of missing data from the critical final minutes of the budget carrier’s Boeing 737-800 aircraft was surprising and suggested that all power, including backup power, may have been cut off, This situation is rare.
The Department of Transportation said that other available data will be used in the investigation and will ensure that the investigation is transparent and information is shared with the families of the victims.
Some families of the victims said that the Ministry of Transportation should not lead the investigation but should involve independent experts, including experts recommended by the families.
The investigation is also focusing on the embankment where the plane crashed, which is designed to support the “locator” system used to assist planes in landing, including why it was built of such a hard material and so close to the end of the runway.
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