A device that could shed light on South Korea’s deadliest plane crash is missing a critical component, authorities have revealed, potentially delaying the investigation into the cause of the accident that killed 179 people.
The flight data recorder, which tracks aircraft parameters such as altitude and airspeed among others, is one of the two “black-boxes” that Korean investigators retrieved from the wreckage of Jeju Air Co plane that exploded at the Muan International Airport on Sunday morning. The FDR lost a connector that links the data storage unit to the power storage unit, a senior transport ministry official said.
“An expert is continuously looking for ways to restore the data inside the recorder,” Deputy Minister for Civil Aviation Joo Jong-wan said at a briefing on Dec 31. The ministry will try to resolve the issue “as soon as possible”, Joo said, without clarifying how long it would take.
Authorities secured another piece of evidence, called the cockpit voice recorder, which records radio transmissions and pilot’s voices, as well as engine noises. The two devices will be checked by a joint investigation group starting Dec 31, comprising of US aviation authorities and officials from Boeing Co, the manufacturer of the 737-800 plane, Joo said.
Investigators have reason to believe bird strikes might have led to the accident based on the communication between the airport control tower and the pilot before the crash. The control tower issued a bird-strike warning two minutes before the pilot declared a mayday emergency call before the plane crashed into a wall at the end of the runway and exploded.
Korean authorities interviewed two officials who worked at the control tower at the time, without elaborating. They are also looking into why landing gears didn’t work as the plane approached the ground and whether the localiser – an instrument to guide landing of planes – has any relevance to the crash. – Bloomberg
