Investigators in South Korea have extracted data from one of two black boxes retrieved from a Jeju Air plane that crashed shortly after landing on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people onboard.
The country’s deputy minister for civil aviation, Joo Jong-wan, said initial data had been retrieved from the Boeing 737-800’s cockpit voice recorder, and that the contents were being converted into audio format.
South Korea’s transport ministry said on Wednesday that it would send the plane’s other black box, the flight data recorder, to the US for analysis. The recorder reportedly sustained external damage – a missing connector that links its data storage unit to the power supply, the Yonhap news agency said.
Authorities in South Korea and the US are hoping the devices will provide crucial clues about events leading up to the pilot’s attempt to land after the aircraft’s landing gear apparently failed to deploy.
“The damaged flight data recorder has been deemed unrecoverable for data extraction domestically,” Joo said. “It was agreed today to transport it to the United States for analysis in collaboration with the US National Transportation Safety Board.”
The plane, on a return flight from Thailand, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew when the cockpit issued a mayday call and belly-landed on the runway at Muan international airport in South Korea’s south-west.
The aircraft careered along the runway before hitting a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone onboard except two flight attendants who were pulled from the burning wreckage at the rear of the aircraft.
An “initial extraction [of the cockpit voice recorder] has already been completed,” Joo said. “Based on this preliminary data, we plan to start converting it into audio format,” which will enable investigators to hear the pilots’ final communications.
It could take about two days for investigators to convert the data to audio files, the transport ministry said. Transferring the damaged flight data recorder to the US could prolong efforts to get to the bottom of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
Black boxes are typically located in the tail of an aircraft – which experience suggests sustains the least damage in an accident – and are designed to survive high-speed impact and fires. They are not failsafe, however, and can sometimes be damaged or destroyed.
Several theories have been put forward as the possible cause of the crash, including a bird strike and possible mechanical failures, with local media reporting that the landing gear had deployed successfully during the plane’s first attempted landing, but failed on a second attempt moments later.
A government-ordered emergency inspection of all Boeing 737-800 models operated by South Korean carriers was examining the landing gear. The ongoing inspections were “focusing mainly on the landing gear, which failed to deploy properly in this case”, the director general for aviation safety policy, Yoo Kyung-soo, said.
Officials said the bodies were very badly damaged by the crash, which had made the work of identifying remains slow and difficult to the frustration of grieving relatives, who have spent four days at the airport.
The country’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, called for a fair and objective investigation, adding that funeral procedures had begun after all 179 victims were formally identified.
“The most urgent matter at present is to return the victims to their families,” Choi told a meeting.
The initial onsite investigation has centred on a barrier located near the end of the runway that supported a navigation system used to help aircraft land called a localiser.
Most of the victims are thought to have died when the plane, which had been carrying mostly people back from year-end holidays in Thailand, smashed into the concrete barrier at speed, the impact causing the fuselage to break up and burst into flames.
Airport authorities set up a makeshift altar on Tuesday, and organised buses on Wednesday to take victims’ relatives to pay their respects at the crash site.
Park Han-shin, who has been liaising with airport and government authorities on behalf of the bereaved families, said about 700 family members had visited the site, where they laid chrysanthemums and bowls of rice-cake soup.
Park said 43 bodies had been listed as ready for release to their families, and asked relatives of those not on the list to be patient.
Many New Year’s Eve celebrations across South Korea were cancelled or toned down as the country marked the third of seven days of official mourning.
