On Saturday, the South Korean transport ministry said that crucial data is missing from the black boxes of the Jeju Air plane crash which happened at Muan International Airport, claiming 179 lives, on December 29.
The cockpit voice recorders on the Boeing 737-800 jet stopped recording about four minutes before the airliner hit a concrete structure at South Korea’s Muan airport.
The voice recorder was initially analysed in South Korea, and, when data was found to be missing, sent to a US National Transportation Safety Board laboratory, the ministry was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The damaged flight data recorder was taken to the United States for analysis in cooperation with the US safety regulator, the ministry said, “A joint investigation team comprising Korean and US officials is trying to determine what caused the devices to stop working.”
The ministry assured that other available data would be used in the investigation, stressing transparency and a commitment to keeping the victims’ families informed.
However, some family members of the victims expressed concerns, suggesting that the transport ministry should not lead the investigation. They advocated for the inclusion of independent experts, including those recommended by the families.
