The flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Jeju Air crash last month stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea’s transport ministry confirmed.
The crash, which occurred on 29 December at Muan International Airport, killed 179 people, making it the deadliest air accident on South Korean soil. Two cabin crew members were the only survivors of the tragic incident.
The Boeing 737-800, en route from Bangkok, crash-landed without its landing gear deployed, slid off the runway, and hit a wall, bursting into flames. Investigators had hoped the recorders, often referred to as “black boxes,” would shed light on the crucial moments leading up to the accident.
After initial analysis in South Korea, the recorders were sent to the United States, where safety regulators confirmed the missing data.
Transport ministry officials are now investigating why the recorders stopped, raising questions about a potential loss of all power, including backups.
Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, expressed surprise at the loss of the critical final minutes of data.
The ministry is also probing other potential causes, including weather conditions and a possible bird strike.
The investigation has highlighted the lack of landing gear deployment, a key factor in the crash, but many questions about the tragedy remain unanswered.
This is deadliest air accident ever in South Korea that killed 179 people when an airliner belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at Muan International Airport.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was trying to land shortly after 9 am local time at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea’s transport ministry said. Two crew members survived and were being treated for injuries.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen in local media video landing on its belly at the Muan International Airport and skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out of the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames, killing everyone on board except two crew plucked from the wreckage.
“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of [the plane] looks almost impossible to recognise,” Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a press briefing. The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Lee said.
“Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival,” a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade. Only two peopleboth flight attendantswere rescued from the crash, it said.
“Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified,” the country’s fire agency said, adding that DNA retrieval had begun. Inside the airport terminal, tearful family members gathered to wait for news. An official began calling out the names of the 65 victims, with each name triggering fresh cries of grief.
All of the passengers were Korean apart from two Thais, with the youngest a three-year-old boy and the oldest a 78-year-old, authorities said. The two survivors were transferred to separate hospitals in Seoul, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Bits of plane seats and luggage were strewn across the field next to the runway. Authorities combed nearby areas for bodies possibly thrown from the plane, Lee said. Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said.
