On Wednesday, South Korean authorities looking into the Jeju Air crash, which claimed 179 lives and was the country’s worst aviation catastrophe, said that they would send one of the recovered black boxes to the US for examination.
On Sunday, the aircraft carrying 181 passengers from Thailand made a mayday call, belly-landed, collided with a barrier, and exploded in flames, killing all occupants except for two flight attendants who were rescued from the flaming wreckage.
Since Sunday, South Korean and American investigators, including those from Boeing, have been searching the crash site in southwestern Muan.
“It has been determined that the damaged flight data recorder cannot be recovered for domestic data extraction,” stated Joo Jong-wan, South Korea’s deputy minister for civil aviation.
In cooperation with the US National Transportation Safety Board, it was decided today to ship it to the US for examination. Joo had previously stated that the plane’s black boxes had been recovered in both cases and that “the initial extraction has already been completed” with regard to the cockpit voice recorder.
He stated that investigators would be able to hear the pilots’ last conversations since “we plan to start converting it into audio format based on this preliminary data.”
The flight data recorder, the second black box, “was found with a missing connector,” according to Joo.
“To find out how to extract data from it, experts are currently doing a final review.”
The study was also looking at a concrete barrier at the end of the runway, which dramatic video showed the Boeing 737-800 slamming with before exploding into flames. Officials had previously suggested that a bird strike might have caused the accident.
Following concerns about a potential mechanical failure in the tragedy, they also stated that a special investigation of all Boeing 737-800 models flown by regional carriers was looking at their landing gear.
Prior to its second unsuccessful landing attempt at Muan airport, local media reported that the landing gear had deployed correctly on Jeju Air Flight 2216’s first attempt.
Speaking at a briefing, the ministry of land, which is in charge of civil aviation, stated that the problem “
Every victim was identified.
Delays in identifying and releasing the bodies have increased the frustration of the victims’ families at Muan airport.
Even though investigators had to preserve crash-site evidence, officials have stated that the bodies were severely injured in the collision, making the identification process slow and extremely challenging.
However, Choi Sang-mok, the nation’s acting president, who has only been in office for a week, announced on Wednesday that the procedure was finally finished and that more bodies had been given to family members so that funerals could be held.
At a disaster response meeting on Wednesday, Choi stated, “Our investigators are conducting a joint investigation into the cause of the accident along with the manufacturer and the US National Transportation Safety Board.”
“The cause of the accident will be revealed through a thorough analysis and review of the aircraft’s structure and the black box data,” Choi continued.
The first on-site joint investigation by the US inspectors, who had arrived on Monday, was focused on a navigation system called a localizer that aids in airplane landings. They were going directly to Muan.
The barrier that has been held accountable for making the Jeju Air crash more severe is the localizer, which was erected on a concrete structure at Muan International Airport.
With the exception of two Thais, all of the passengers were Korean nationals returning from year-end vacations to Bangkok.
After officials have examined the black boxes, a more thorough explanation of what went wrong in the last moments of the flight is anticipated.
Across the country, memorial shrines for the victims have been erected, including in Seoul and at the airport in Muan.
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