The flight recorder of the Jeju Air passenger aircraft which crashed final month, killing 179 folks, stopped recording in its ultimate 4 minutes, South Korean officers mentioned Saturday, a major setback for investigators.
Information retrieved from the so-called black field, consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight information recorder, is often essential in aviation accident investigations. South Korean officers working with the US’ Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned the aircraft’s flight information the last four minutescould be particularly necessary on this crash.
However on Saturday, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport mentioned that for causes nonetheless unspecified, the Boeing 737-800’s black field stopped recording then.
“We plan to research why the info was not recorded,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement. He additionally mentioned different information and evaluation can be used to attempt to perceive what occurred in final month’s catastrophe.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, coming from Bangkok with 181 folks on board, was making ready to land at Muan Worldwide Airport in southwestern South Korea at 8:59 a.m. on Dec. 29 when its pilot reported, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, ” and “Fowl collision, chicken collision,” in accordance with officers. The pilot additionally informed the air visitors management tower that he was “going round,” that means he would abort his first touchdown try and circle the air to organize for a second.
However apparently he did not have sufficient time to return full circle. As a substitute, the plane approached the runway from the wrong way and landed on its stomach with out its touchdown gear opening. He can not seem to management his pace, he overshoots the observe. 4 minutes after the Mayday emergency was introduced, the plane crashed right into a concrete construction close to the southern finish of the runway and burst into flames.
A key query was: What occurred in these 4 minutes?
“The black field information is essential to the investigation,” mentioned Hwang Ho-won, chairman of the Korea Aviation Safety Affiliation. “If the investigators haven’t got it, it’ll create a major problem for them.”
The lacking information provides thriller to the crash, which was the worst aviation crash on South Korean soil and the deadliest worldwide since Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, which killed all 189 folks on board.
Mr. Huang mentioned black bins may be broken by impression, fireplace or extended publicity to deep water. However it was arduous to clarify how the Jeju Air black field didn’t file in its ultimate 4 minutes, he mentioned
He mentioned investigators could possibly reconstruct a number of the cockpit dialog based mostly on interviews with management tower personnel. Radar and different information urged the aircraft tried however failed to achieve altitude after reporting a chicken strike and rushed to land, Mr. Huang mentioned.
Investigators mentioned they had been taking a look at numerous prospects, together with that the aircraft misplaced using one or each engines within the ultimate minutes.
A lot of the 179 individuals who died had been South Koreans returning residence from a Christmas trip in Thailand. The 2 survivors had been crew members discovered with accidents within the tail part of the aircraft.
The catastrophe sparked a nationwide outpouring of grief, with memorials erected throughout South Korea, and got here because the nation was additionally coping with political crisis triggered by the short-lived imposition of martial regulation by President Yoon Suk-yeol and his impeachment by parliament.
