The flight recorders (black boxes) of the "Jeju Air" airliner that crashed on December 29 stopped recording about four minutes before the airliner hit a concrete wall at South Korea's Muan airport, the Ministry of Transport announced today, quoted by Reuters, writes BTA.
The authorities investigating the worst air disaster in South Korea's history, which killed 179 people, will analyze the reasons for the interruption of the black box recordings, the ministry said.
The device that records data from the cockpit communication was read in South Korea, but the analysis found that there was no data, so the authorities in Seoul subsequently turned to their American colleagues for help and with their help it was sent for analysis to the laboratory of the US National Transportation Safety Board, the Ministry added.
Flight 7C2216 of "Jeju Air", flying from the Thai capital Bangkok to the South Korean airport Muan, landed on its belly and went off the runway at the regional airport, then burst into flames as a result of hitting a fence at the end of the runway.
The pilots told the air traffic controllers on duty that the plane had hit a flock of birds, and declared an emergency about four minutes before the crash.
Two injured crew members, who were in the tail section of the plane at the time of the accident, were rescued.