Officials say black boxes from the South Korean plane crash failed to record the final four minutes

The black boxes of the Boeing plane that crashed in South Korea last month stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, South Korean officials said on Saturday, potentially complicating investigations into the cause of the disaster that killed 179 people.

After analyzing the devices, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders stopped working about four minutes before the accident, the South Korean Ministry of Transportation said.

The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air slid off the runway in the South Korean town of Muan on December 29 after its landing gear failed, crashing into a concrete structure and bursting into flames, killing all 181 people on board. Except for two. on board.

After initially analyzing the black boxes, South Korean officials sent the devices to the NTSB for closer examination when some data was discovered to be missing. The Ministry of Transport said it was not immediately clear why the devices failed to record data in the last four minutes.

“Data from the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) and FDR (flight data recorder) are crucial in investigating accidents, but such investigations are conducted by examining and analyzing various sources of information, and we plan to do our best to determine the cause.” The Ministry explained in a statement that the accident occurred.

Watch | Why did the plane’s landing gear fail to deploy?:

Why were the emergency landing gear for the crashed South Korean plane not deployed? | Canada tonight

Following the crash of a Jeju Airlines Boeing 737-800 that skidded off the runway in South Korea on Sunday, an investigation is underway to find out what happened. One of the key questions in the investigation, according to former senior engineering failure analyst Eugene Abramovichi, is why the plane did not deploy its landing gear during the emergency landing.

South Korean investigators said that air traffic controllers warned the pilot of a possible bird collision two minutes before the plane issued a distress signal confirming a bird collision, after which the pilot attempted an emergency landing.

South Korean officials also pledged to improve airport safety after experts linked the rising death toll to GPS tracking at Muan Airport, the structure the plane struck during the crash.

The Localizer, an array of antennas designed to guide planes during landing, was placed in a dirt-covered concrete structure on an elevated embankment. This has raised questions about whether the structure should be built with lighter materials that could break more easily on impact.

Watch | South Korea orders air safety investigation after fatal plane crash:

South Korea orders air safety inspections after Jeju plane crash

South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered emergency safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 planes operated by the country’s airlines after a Jeju Air plane crash killed nearly all passengers on board.