The flight recorder of the Jeju Air passenger jet that crashed final month, killing 179 folks, stopped recording for its final 4 minutes, South Korean officers mentioned on Saturday, a big setback for investigators.
Information extracted from the so-called black field, consisting of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight information recorder, is usually essential in investigations of aviation accidents. Officers in South Korea, who’ve been working with the US’ Nationwide Transportation Security Board, have mentioned that the flight information for the airplane’s last four minutes can be particularly essential on this crash.
However on Saturday, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport mentioned that for causes not but decided, the black field of the Boeing 737-800 had stopped recording then.
“We plan to research why the information was not recorded,” the ministry mentioned in a information launch. It additionally mentioned that 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 getting 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, “Chicken strike, chicken strike,” in accordance with officers. The pilot additionally instructed the air visitors management tower that he was “going round,” that means he would abort his first touchdown try and circle within the air to organize for a second one.
However he apparently didn’t have sufficient time to make a full circle. As a substitute, the airplane approached the runway from the other way and landed on its stomach, with out its touchdown gear deployed. Seeming unable to regulate its pace, it overshot the runway. 4 minutes after the Mayday emergency report, the airplane slammed right into a concrete construction off the southern finish of the runway and exploded into flames.
A key query has been: What occurred throughout these 4 minutes?
“The black field information is essential in the investigation,” mentioned Hwang Ho-won, the chairman of the Korea Affiliation for Aviation Safety. “If the investigators don’t have it, it is going to create a significant issue for them.”
The lacking information provides thriller to the crash, which was the worst aviation catastrophe on South Korean soil and the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 folks on board died.
Mr. Hwang mentioned black packing containers may very well be broken by impression, fireplace or extended publicity to deep water. Nevertheless it was laborious to elucidate how the Jeju Air black field did not document in its final 4 minutes, he mentioned.
He mentioned that investigators would possibly have the ability to reconstruct a part of the dialog contained in the cockpit based mostly on interviews with management tower officers. Radar and different information recommended that the airplane tried however failed to realize altitude after reporting a chicken strike and hurried to land, Mr. Hwang mentioned.
Investigators have mentioned they had been trying into numerous prospects, together with that of the airplane shedding use of 1 or each of its engines in its final minutes.
A lot of the 179 individuals who died had been South Koreans returning residence from a Christmas vacation in Thailand. The 2 survivors had been each crew members discovered with accidents within the airplane’s tail part.
The catastrophe prompted a nationwide outpouring of grief, with memorials arrange throughout South Korea, and got here because the nation was additionally coping with a political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial regulation and his impeachment by Parliament.
