Seoul sends the black box of the ill-fated plane for examination in the United States

South Korea decided to send one of the black boxes of the ill-fated plane, which killed 179 people, to the United States for data analysis, according to what a government official announced on Wednesday.

A Boeing 737-800 belonging to Jeju Low-Cost Air Transport Company was transporting 181 people on a flight from Thailand, including 175 passengers and 6 crew members, in the worst aviation disaster in South Korea.

The accident resulted in the death of all those on Flight 2216, except for two crew members who were rescued.

South Korean and American investigators, some from Boeing, are combing the site of the accident that occurred Sunday morning in Muan.

Unable to extract information

South Korea’s Vice Minister of Civil Aviation, Jo Jung-wan, said that since the information in the damaged flight data recorder could not be extracted on South Korean soil, it was decided on Wednesday to transfer it to the United States for analysis in cooperation with American investigators.

This comes hours after a statement in which he said that investigators were able to extract raw data from the other black box, which would allow investigators to listen to the pilots’ final exchanges.

Collision with a cement wall

The plane, which took off from Bangkok, crashed after landing without landing gear on the runway at Muan Airport, and slid until it hit a cement wall and turned into a ball of flame.

The hypothesis of a collision with birds, which is a worry for pilots, was raised to explain the accident, and the Muan Airport control tower issued a warning to this effect to the plane’s crew 3 minutes before the crash.
The plane’s pilot also sent a distress call before the emergency landing.

It is possible for jet engines to lose power, or even to stop completely, after the bird is swallowed.

But criticism affected the airport’s design, especially the presence of the wall that the plane collided with at the end of the runway.

The South Korean authorities announced on Tuesday that they would look into the regulatory rules related to this concrete wall that was built at the end of the runway.

Assumption of a technical defect

The hypothesis of a technical defect was also raised, and local media reported that the landing gear operated properly when the pilot attempted to land the first time, but it did not open on the second attempt.

The Ministry of Regional Planning, which supervises civil aviation, explained during a press conference that “this hypothesis will likely be examined with a full review of the testimonies and evidence.”