South Korean authorities said on Saturday that the black boxes from the tragic December crash of the Jeju Air
aircraft had ceased collecting data around four minutes before the incident, marking a startling development in the inquiry into the country’s deadliest aviation catastrophe, according to Reuters. The missing data is now complicating the investigation into the crash, which claimed the lives of 179 people and marked the worst aviation tragedy in South Korea’s history.
Critical flight data lost in last minutes
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport confirmed that both the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) ceased functioning during the critical final moments of Jeju Air flight 7C2216
. According to the South Korean government, the cockpit voice recorder was transported to the US for cross-checking after being examined locally. After South Korean officials determined they could not extract data from the device owing to the damage, the flight data recorder, which was broken and lacking a connector, was delivered to the US National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB
) for study last week.
“Data from the CVR ( Cockpit Voice Recorder
) and FDR (flight data recorder) are crucial in investigating accidents, but such investigations are conducted through the examination and analysis of various sources of information, and we plan to do our utmost to determine the cause of the accident,” the ministry said in a statement, according to Associated Press.
Experts express concern over unusual data loss
Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, told Reuters that it was unexpected to find the missing data from the critical last minutes and that it was possible that all power, including backup, had been disconnected, which is uncommon.
According to The New York Times, Hwang Ho-won, the chairman of the Korea Association for Aviation Security, said the black box data is essential to the inquiry. “If the investigators don’t have it, it will create a serious problem for them.”
Hwang said that black boxes can suffer damage from fire, collision, or prolonged exposure to deep water. However, he stated it was difficult to explain why the Jeju Air black box failed to record during the final four minutes.
Related
Jeju Air’s Safety History Under Further Scrutiny Amid High Aircraft Utilization Rate
The airline has maintained one of the highest utilization rates in the world.
Families’ demands
The Korean transport ministry stated that other accessible data would be used in the investigation and ensured the probe would be transparent, with information shared with the victims’ relatives. However, according to Reuters, multiple family members of the dead have stated that independent experts, including those suggested by the families, should be included in the probe and that the transport ministry shouldn’t be leading it.
Yonhap News Agency of South Korea said Tuesday that the government has prohibited top officials, both current and former, from participating in the recent Jeju Air plane catastrophe in order to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure a thorough and impartial investigation.
Photo: KITTIKUN YOKSAP | Shutterstock
What we know so far about Flight 2216
The Boeing 737-800
, registered as HL8088, was the aircraft involved in the fatal plane crash. Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, which was traveling from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in southern South Korea. On December 29, 2024, as the aircraft approached for landing, it suffered a bird strike. The pilot made a distress call, declaring a ” Mayday
” and reporting the bird strike
just two minutes before the crash. However, the plane’s landing gear
failed to deploy, and the aircraft belly-landed, skidding off the runway and slamming into a concrete barrier before bursting into flames. Only two people, both crew members seated at the back of the plane, survived.
Related
South Korea Extends Muan International Airport Shutdown After Jeju Air Crash
The airport will remain closed until at least January 14, according to South Korean officials.
Officials declared last week that all 179 remains had been found, with 151 of them having previously been given back to their families along with their identifying personal things, according to The Independent.
Experts from Boeing’s technical team, the NTSB, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) traveled to South Korea at the end of December to help with the investigation as officials rush to find out what caused the disaster.
