Jeju Air 'black box' data missing from last 4 minutes before crash, South Korea ministry says

By Hyunjoo Jin and Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) -The formation information and cockpit dependable recorders connected the Jeju Air pitchy that crashed connected Dec. 29 stopped signaling astir 4 minutes earlier the airliner deed a factual operation astatine South Korea's Muan airport, the transport ministry said connected Saturday.

Authorities investigating the catastrophe that killed 179 people, the worst connected South Korean soil, program to analyse what caused the "black boxes" to halt recording, the ministry said successful a statement.

The dependable recorder was initially analysed successful South Korea, and, erstwhile information was recovered to beryllium missing, sent to a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board laboratory, the ministry said.

The damaged formation information recorder was taken to the United States for investigation successful practice with the U.S. information regulator, the ministry has said.

Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed the Thai superior Bangkok for Muan successful southwestern South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the determination airport's runway, exploding into flames aft hitting an embankment.

The pilots told aerial postulation power the craft had suffered a vertebrate onslaught and declared exigency astir 4 minutes earlier it crashed into the embankment exploding successful flames. Two injured unit members, sitting successful the process section, were rescued.

Two minutes earlier the Mayday exigency call, aerial postulation power gave caution for "bird activity". Declaring emergency, the pilots abandoned the landing effort and initiated a go-around.

But alternatively of making a afloat go-about, the fund airline's Boeing (NYSE:) 737-800 pitchy took a crisp crook and approached the airport's azygous runway from the other end, crash-landing without landing cogwheel deployed.

Sim Jai-dong, a erstwhile transport ministry mishap investigator, said the find of the missing information from the important last minutes was astonishing and suggests each powerfulness including backup whitethorn person been cut, which is rare.

The transport ministry said different information disposable would beryllium utilized successful the probe and that it would guarantee the probe is transparent and that accusation is shared with the victims' families.

Some members of the victims' families person said the transport ministry should not beryllium taking the pb successful the probe but that it should impact autarkic experts including those recommended by the families.

The probe of the clang has besides focussed connected the embankment, which was designed to prop up the "localiser" strategy utilized to assistance craft landing, including wherefore it was built with specified rigid worldly and truthful adjacent to the extremity of the runway.