The black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed Jeju Air flight that left 179 people dead stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea’s transport ministry said Saturday.
“The analysis revealed that both the CVR and FDR data were not recorded during the four minutes leading up to the aircraft’s collision with the localizer,” the transport ministry said in a statement, referring to the two recording devices.
The damaged flight data recorder had been deemed unrecoverable for data extraction by South Korean authorities, who sent it to the United States for analysis at the US National Transportation Safety Board laboratory.
But it appears that the boxes holding clues to the flight’s final moments experienced data loss, leaving authorities trying to discover what happened.
“Plans are in place to investigate the cause of the data loss during the ongoing accident investigation,” the ministry said.
South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash, which prompted a national outpouring of mourning with memorials set up across the country.
Investigators said the boxes were crucial to their probe but said they would not give up on trying to discover why the crash happened.
“The investigation will be conducted by examining and analyzing various data. The Committee is committed to doing its best to accurately determine the cause of the accident,” the ministry said.
Investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear, and the runway barrier as possible issues.
The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29 carrying 181 passengers and crew when it belly-landed at the Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.
It was the worst-ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
