Concerns over South Korean plane crash: Flight recorder stopped working four minutes before impact, making investigation into cause difficult

In the passenger plane accident at Muan Airport in southwestern South Korea in which 179 passengers and crew were killed, the black box installed on the plane did not store data for about four minutes before the plane crashed into a wall.
South Korean media has reported that "concerns are growing that it may become difficult to determine the cause of the accident" (Dong-A Ilbo).
The Jeju Air flight, carrying 181 passengers and crew, crashed into Muan International Airport at around 8:30 a.m. on the 29th of last month.
Approaching the port, after the control tower gave the go-ahead to land, the pilot of the passenger plane reported a bird strike. The plane sent out a distress signal calling for help, and the first landing was called "Goala."
For some reason, the wheels did not function properly, and after attempting a second belly landing, the plane left the runway, crashed into a wall, and burst into flames.
179 passengers and crew members were killed in the accident, making it the deadliest passenger plane accident to occur in South Korea and the second deadliest accident on a South Korean aircraft since 1997.
This was the first loss of life since the Korean Air crash in Guam, which killed 229 people. The Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported on the scene, "It was literally a scene of carnage. The passenger plane that crashed into the airport's outer wall was torn apart after the fuselage.
Only the tail and a part of the tail were left with some shape that could be made out. The whole of the aircraft was completely in pieces. Rescue workers working to recover the body said, "This is it.
"The tragedy that occurred at the end of the year has spread grief, and the new year has begun in a mood of mourning. Companies and local governments are
The government has decided to hold a national mourning period until the 4th of this month. Incense altars have been set up all over the country, and people are lining up to pay their respects.
The cause of the accident has been pointed out as a "bird strike" or "malfunction of the landing gear." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) announced in a press release on the 7th of this month that
"We discovered some feathers while removing dirt that had gotten into the engine," he said at the press conference.
The company explained that it is believed that the incident definitely occurred in one engine, but that it is necessary to wait for the results of the investigation to determine whether the incident occurred in both engines at the same time.
In addition, in this accident, the aircraft collided with a concrete structure installed at the end of the runway.
It has been pointed out that this was a factor in exacerbating the damage. The structure was installed to support a localizer, a type of antenna that guides passenger planes to the runway.
According to Korean media, David B., editor of the British weekly magazine Flight International, which specializes in aerospace,
On the 30th of last month, Mr. Learmount said in an interview with Sky News in the UK that "if the plane had not crashed into the wall, there is a high possibility that the passengers would have survived."
If the aircraft had been able to fly through the fence, it would have flown over the road and come to a halt in an adjacent vacant lot. There would have been plenty of room for the aircraft to slow down and come to a halt. There would have been some damage done in the process of flying through the fence.
"Even if the plane had been thrown out, the passengers would still have been saved," he said. The concrete structure was located about 200 to 300 meters away from the end of the runway, but the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism did not confirm this location.
The ministry has stated that it believes there is no legal problem with the establishment of the facility, and reiterated this position at a press conference on the 7th of this month. Meanwhile, while the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Railway Accident Investigation Committee is investigating the cause of the accident,
The committee revealed on the 11th that recordings from the black boxes (flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder) had stopped about four minutes before the plane crashed and burst into flames.
A voice recorder is a device that records conversations between the pilot, co-pilot and other flight crew members, as well as communications between air traffic controllers and flight crew members, sounds of the aircraft's operating status and warning sounds. A flight recorder is a device that records conversations between the pilot, co-pilot and flight crew members, as well as sounds of the aircraft's operating status and warning sounds.
The system records the flight route and the operation status of each device in digital, magnetic or numerical signals. The record of the last four minutes before the collision will provide important clues to clarify the cause of the accident.
The voice recorder was initially analyzed in South Korea, but when it became clear that data was missing, the analysis was sent to an analysis agency of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo pointed out that "the black box is a device that maintains its shape even if the aircraft is completely destroyed, but it is highly unusual that it does not record the situation in the few minutes before the accident."
Experts have suggested that damage to both of the aircraft's engines and serious problems with the electrical system may have paralyzed the aircraft's ability to transmit information to the black boxes.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Accident Investigation Committee will investigate why the data was not saved and said it will "do its best to determine the exact cause of the accident."