The black bins holding the flight knowledge and cockpit voice recorders of a South Korean passenger jet that crashed, killing 179 individuals, stopped recording 4 minutes earlier than the catastrophe, officers have mentioned.
Jeju Air 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was flying from the Thai capital of Bangkok to Muan, South Korea, on 29 December when it crash-landed, skidding off the runway right into a wall and exploding into flames.
Of the 175 passengers and 6 crew members on board, solely two crew survived and had been pulled from the wreckage at Muan Worldwide Airport, about 180 miles south of Seoul.
Authorities investigating the catastrophe plan to look into what triggered the black bins to cease recording, South Korea’s transport ministry mentioned in an announcement on Saturday.
The voice recorder was initially analysed in South Korea. When knowledge was discovered to be lacking, it was despatched to a US Nationwide Transportation Security Board laboratory, the ministry mentioned.
The broken flight knowledge recorder was additionally taken to the US for evaluation in cooperation with the US security regulator.
Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, mentioned the invention of the lacking knowledge from the essential remaining minutes was stunning.
He added it suggests all energy – together with backup – could have been lower, which is uncommon.
The pilots advised air visitors management the plane had suffered a chicken strike and declared an emergency about 4 minutes earlier than it crashed.
Earlier this week, lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol mentioned feathers had been present in one of many engines recovered from the crash scene.
He added video footage confirmed there was a chicken strike on one of many engines.
Whereas authorities beforehand mentioned they suspected a chicken strike could have performed a task within the crash, it has not but been confirmed why the touchdown gear was not deployed, or what led to the crash-landing.
The airplane exploded seemingly whereas colliding with a concrete wall on the finish of the runway, and consultants have questioned why it was there.
Police are additionally investigating how the airfield wall the airplane hit was constructed.
