South Korea to send damaged black box of crashed Jeju Air plane to US – Firstpost

South Korea will send the retrieved black boxes of the crashed Jeju Air flight, in which 179 of 181 people onboard were killed, to the United States for analysis.

“The damaged flight data recorder has been deemed unrecoverable for data extraction domestically. It was agreed today (Wednesday) to transport it to the United States for analysis in collaboration with the US National Transportation Safety Board,” South Korea’s deputy minister for civil aviation, Joo Jong-wan, said.

Joo had earlier said that both the black boxes of the Jeju Air flight that crashed on Sunday were retrieved, and for the cockpit voice recorder, “the initial extraction has already been completed.”

What’s the plan?

Joo went on to say that “based on this preliminary data, we plan to start converting it into audio format.” This means that the investigators would be able to hear the final communications of the pilots of the ill fated flight.

The second black box, the flight data recorder, was found with a missing connector. Joo said that the experts are “currently conducting a final review to determine how to extract data from it.”

South Korea worst aviation disaster

The Jeju Air Flight 2216 from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday issued a Mayday call and belly-landed before hitting a barrier and bursting into flames killing all the 175 passengers on board along with four crew members. Two flight attendants were pulled from the burning wreckage.

Investigators of South Korea along with those from the US, including from Boeing, have been combing the crash site in south-western Muan airport since the accident on December 29.

Initially, investigators pointed to a bird strike as a possible cause of the disaster, but they have since said the probe was also examining a concrete barrier at the end of the runway, which video showed the Boeing 737-800 colliding with before bursting into flames.

The localiser, installed on a concrete structure at Muan International Airport, is the barrier that has been blamed for exacerbating the severity of the crash of the Jeju Air flight which was largely carrying holidaymakers back from year-end trips to Bangkok, with all passengers Korean nationals except for two Thais.

Also, after reports of possible mechanical failure in the crash, a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 models operated by local carriers to examine their landing gear, is being carried out.

Director-general for aviation safety policy, Yoo Kyeong-soo, said that the ongoing inspections are “focusing mainly on the landing gear, which failed to deploy properly in this case.”

Meanwhile, reports in local media said that the landing gear had deployed properly on Jeju Air Flight 2216’s first failed landing attempt at Muan airport before failing on the second.

With inputs from agencies.