The Jeju Air black boxes aboard a Boeing 737-800 that crashed at Muan International Airport (MWX) on December 29, 2024, failed to record the final minutes of flight data.
According to the Yonhap News Agency, the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the Jeju Air Boeing 737 only captured data up until around four minutes before the plane collided with an airport embankment.
South Korean authorities said efforts by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States (Us) to locate the missing data had proven unsuccessful.
It will now be down to accident investigators to determine the events that led to the crash despite not having this critical data.
“The investigation involves analyzing various sources of information, including air traffic control records, video footage of the crash and debris from the site,” South Korean authorities said according to Yonhap.
It is understood the black box recordings stopped working at 08:59, with the crash occurring at 09:03.
Among 181 people onboard the Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, 179 lost their lives after the aircraft suffered a runway excursion during an emergency belly landing.
Sim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, told Reuters that the loss of black box data, suggested all power to the aircraft had been lost.
Investigators are examining several factors, including a bird strike, faulty landing gear, and problems with the runway barrier.