On Saturday, January 11, the South Korean Ministry of Transport stated that in the crash of Jeju Air flight 7C2216 in South Korea, both black boxes – the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – did not record data from approximately four minutes before the plane crashed.
According to Reuters, South Korean authorities are investigating this most severe domestic aviation accident in South Korea to analyze the reasons why the “black boxes” stopped recording approximately four minutes before the plane crashed.
The Ministry of Transport of South Korea said in a statement that the cockpit voice recorder was initially analyzed in South Korea, and when data loss was detected, the damaged flight data recorder was sent to the laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States for joint analysis with U.S. regulatory authorities.
On December 29, 2024, Jeju Air flight 7C2216 took off from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and crashed while attempting to land without extending the landing gear at Incheon International Airport in South Korea, running off the runway and exploding after hitting a concrete embankment.
Prior to the crash, the pilot informed air traffic control that the aircraft had hit birds. About four minutes before the explosion after hitting the embankment, the aircraft declared an emergency. The accident resulted in the death of 179 individuals, with only two crew members sitting at the rear of the aircraft surviving.
Two minutes before the aircraft issued a distress emergency call, air traffic control warned of bird activity. After declaring an emergency, the pilot abandoned landing attempts and initiated a go-around.
However, instead of completing a full turn, the budget airline’s Boeing 737-800 made an abrupt turn, approaching the airport from the other end of the single runway and making a forced landing without extending the landing gear.
Sim Jai-dong, a former accident investigator from the South Korean Ministry of Transport, expressed surprise at the loss of data in the critical final minutes, indicating that all power sources, including backup power, may have been cut off, a very rare occurrence.
The Ministry of Transport stated that all available data will be utilized for the investigation to ensure transparency and share information with the families of the victims.
Some family members of the victims have asserted that the South Korean Ministry of Transport should not lead the investigation into the crash but should involve independent experts, including those recommended by the families of the victims.
The investigation of the crash also focuses on the embankment at the airport. The embankment is designed to support the “locator” system that assists aircraft in landing. The central issue is why the embankment was constructed with such hard materials and placed so close to the end of the runway.