SEOUL — The flight data recorder of the Jeju Air plane that crashed Sunday has been retrieved and will be sent to the United States for analysis, the South Korean government announced today.
While the flight data recorder sustained some external damage, the cockpit voice data recorder was found in a relatively better condition, and the process to convert it into voice files has begun, South Korea’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport also said, Bernama reported citing the Yonhap news agency.
The voice recorder and the flight data recorder are expected to provide crucial clues about events leading up to the Boeing B737-800 aircraft’s crash that killed all 179 people on board the flight returning from Thailand. Two others who survived were flight attendance who were pulled out from the tail of the burning wreckage.
The Jeju Air flight burst into flames after its landing gear failed to deploy causing it to skid along the Muan International Airport runway on its belly before hitting a concrete barrier.
Minutes before the ill-fated landing, the pilot report a “Mayday” call due to a bird-strike and indicated he was circling above the runway to attempt a landing.
Jeju Airlines in a statement, meanwhile, said a pre-flight inspection of the passenger plane said “nothing abormal” was found with the landing gear, BBC reported the airline’s CEO Kim Yi-bae stating at a news conference.
Meanwhile, two additional investigators from aviation manufacturer Boeing Co. have joined the on-site probe into the Jeju Air crash at Muan International Airport, Yonhap reported government sources saying.
They join six others from Boeing already on the crash scene, and three from the US’ National Transportation Safety Board.
The US team arrived in South Korea on Monday and travelled directly to Muan, where it commenced its joint investigation with the Korean team led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
During their initial joint on-site investigation, investigators focused on a navigation system that assists in aircraft landings, known as a localizer.
The localizer, installed on a concrete structure, at Muan International Airport has been blamed for exacerbating the severity of casualties in the crash. – January 1, 2025