The two black boxes of the Jeju Air Boeing which crashed on December 29 in Muan, South Korea, stopped recording four minutes before the accident which killed 179 of the 181 passengers, the Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday. South Korean transport.
“The analysis revealed that the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) were not recording during the four minutes preceding the aircraft’s collision” with the wall which was located in end of the runway and caused the device to break up, the ministry said in a press release.
This Boeing 737-800 from the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air, coming from Bangkok, landed on its belly at Muan airport (southwest) and crashed into the obstacle.
A total of 179 passengers died. Only two flight attendants survived the crash, South Korea’s worst aviation disaster to date.
The authorities planned to “investigate the cause of the data loss”, underlines the press release. Joint investigations between South Korean and American experts, including from Boeing, were launched after the tragedy.
The avenues mentioned so far to explain the accident of Jeju Air Flight 2216 are a collision with birds and a malfunction of the landing gear.
The presence at the end of the runway of the obstacle struck by the plane – a navigation aid tool installed on a mound reinforced with concrete – is also the subject of an investigation.
Before the accident, the pilot had sent a warning message regarding a collision with birds before canceling his first landing attempt. On his second try, the gear was not out.
“Miscellaneous data” to analyze
The flight data recorder stores parameters such as the speed and altitude of the aircraft, but also many other variables, thanks to numerous sensors.
The cockpit voice recorder keeps the pilots’ conversations.
This information normally provides more information to understand what happened before a crash.
The investigation team “is committed to doing its best to precisely determine the cause of the accident,” assured the ministry, saying that “various data” had to be studied.
On Tuesday, lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol told reporters that “feathers were found” in one of the plane’s engines, but clarified that a collision with a bird did not result in engine failure. immediate.
“We need to determine if both engines were affected. It is certain that one of the engines suffered a collision with a bird,” he continued.
Authorities conducted several searches in connection with the accident, including at Muan Airport and the Jeju Air offices in Seoul.
The company’s boss, Kim E-bae, is prohibited from leaving the country.
In Parliament, rival parties formed a joint commission to shed light on this crush.
Transport Minister Park Sang-woo asked him to resign, according to his spokesperson.
