South Korea says Jeju Air’s black boxes stopped recording before plane crash | Aviation news

The Ministry of Transport is investigating the cause of the loss of data following the worst ever aviation disaster in the country’s history.

The black boxes contain flight data and cockpit voice recorders A Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air The South Korean Ministry of Transport said it stopped recording about four minutes before the plane disaster in South Korea last December.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216 was flying from Thailand to Muan International Airport in South Korea on December 29, when it made a belly landing, struck a concrete barrier and exploded. 179 of 181 passengers and crew killed.

It was the worst aviation disaster ever on South Korean soil.

“Analysis revealed that CVR and FDR data were not recorded during the four minutes before the plane hit the GPS device,” the South Korean Ministry of Transport said on Saturday, referring to the two recording devices.

The finder is a barrier at the end of the runway that helps planes land and has been blamed for exacerbating the severity of the accident.

The ministry said the voice recorder was initially analyzed in South Korea, and when data was found to be missing, it was sent to the National Transportation Safety Board laboratory in the United States.

But boxes containing evidence of the final moments of the flight appear to have been missing data, leaving authorities trying to figure out what happened.

“Plans have been made to investigate the cause of the data loss during the ongoing investigation into the incident,” the ministry said.

Sim Jae Dong, a former Ministry of Transport accident investigator, told Reuters news agency that the discovery of the missing data was surprising and suggested that all power, including backup, may have been cut off from the plane, which is rare.

Investigators said the boxes were crucial to their investigation, but added they would not give up trying to find out why the accident happened.

Investigators cited bird strikes, faulty landing gear and a runway barrier as potential problems.

The pilot had also warned of a bird strike before pulling out of the first landing and beginning the spin.

But instead of making the full trip, The plane is Boeing 737-800 I made a sharp turn, approached the airport’s only runway from the opposite end, and made an emergency landing without using landing gear.

This week, Lee Seung-yeol, the lead investigator, told reporters that “feathers” had been found in one of the engines of the recovered plane, but warned that a bird strike does not lead to an immediate engine failure.

Authorities raided offices at Muan Airport where the accident occurred, a regional airline office in the southwestern city, and a Jeju Air office in the capital, Seoul.

They too Jeju Air CEO banned from leaving the country.

As the investigation continued, Transport Minister Park Sang-woo tendered his resignation earlier this week, saying he felt a “great sense of responsibility for this tragedy.”