Jeju Air's Black Box Stopped Recording Just Minutes Before Plane Crash: Report

Data of the crucial last minutes missing from the black box said the South Korean transport ministry.

Jeju Air 7C2216 exploded into flames after it overshot the airport's runway following a belly-landing and hitting an embankment.

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Jeju Air jet’s ‘black box’ stopped recording just minutes before the airliner hit a concrete structure at South Korea's Muan airport on December 29, the transport ministry said on Saturday. Without the black box data, the flight information and cockpit voice recorders are missing.

According to Reuters, authorities investigating the disaster that claimed 179 lives, the deadliest on South Korean soil, plan to examine the cause of the "black boxes" stopping their recording, according to a statement from the ministry. At first, they examined the voice recorder in South Korea discovered the data was missing and sent it to the US National Transportation Safety Board laboratory. The damaged flight data recorder was taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the US safety regulator.

Jeju Air 7C2216 exploded into flames after it overshot the airport's runway following a belly-landing and hitting an embankment. The plane had departed Thailand's capital of Bangkok for Muan in southwestern South Korea.

The pilots had told air traffic control that the aircraft had suffered a bird strike and declared an emergency about four minutes before it crashed. The two injured crew members who were sitting in the tail section were rescued. Two minutes before the Mayday emergency call, air traffic control issued a caution about "bird activity." The pilots declared an emergency, aborted the landing attempt and initiated a go-around.

Instead of completing a full go-around, the budget airline's Boeing 737-800 jet made a sharp turn and approached the airport's single runway from the opposite direction, crash-landing without deploying its landing gear.

According to Reuters, Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator said it was surprising that the data of the final crucial minutes was missing, he suggested that all power including the backup may have been cut, which is rare.

The transport ministry said other data available would be used to investigate the crash and that it would ensure the probe is transparent and that information is shared with the victims' families.