Damaged black box from crashed South Korean plane will be sent to US for analysis as investigation ramps up

By Gawon Bae and Helen Regan, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — The damaged flight data recorder from the Jeju Air passenger jet that crash-landed in South Korea will be sent to the United States for analysis, Seoul’s transport ministry said Wednesday, as bereaved families began visiting the crash site.

The recorder is one of two “black boxes” retrieved from the Boeing 737-800 after it belly-landed at Muan International Airport in the country’s southwest on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people onboard, the deadliest aviation accident for South Korea in almost three decades.

Authorities said the black box was damaged in the crash, and concluded that South Korea is not capable of extracting the data, Seoul’s deputy minister of civil aviation Joo Jong-wan told reporters Wednesday. Earlier, Joo said the flight data recorder was missing a connector.

Once the device has been sent overseas, the US National Transportation Safety Board will lead the analysis and be joined by South Korean investigators. It is not clear how long the process will take.

Meanwhile, investigators have extracted initial data from the second black box – the cockpit voice recorder – and are working to convert its contents into voice files, Joo said.

The process, which is taking place in South Korea, will take about two days. Authorities hope the data from both black boxes will offer vital information that could help determine the cause of the disaster.

“The cause of the accident will be revealed by comprehensively analyzing and reviewing detailed investigations of the aircraft, fuselage and black box,” South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok said Wednesday.

Authorities said they had finished identifying all 179 people killed in the crash, but only 11 bodies have been released so far from a temporary mortuary to the families so they can make funeral arrangements.

Families and loved ones of those onboard have been camped out at the airport in Muan since Sunday. Buses on Wednesday carried relatives of the victims to the crash site in groups, to pay their respects.

An altar has been set up at the airport, with queues of mourners congregating and offering prayers on the first day of the new year.

It is not yet clear what caused the crash of Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 from Bangkok to Muan, and the investigation could take months.

The pilot issued a mayday call and reported a bird strike before making the doomed emergency landing.

Footage of Sunday’s crash broadcast by multiple South Korean news outlets showed that neither the back nor front landing gear was visible. Video showed the plane sliding on its belly at high speed, hitting an earthen embankment and erupting into a fireball.

A possible bird strike, lack of landing gear deployment and a concrete barrier at the end of the runway could all have contributed to the tragedy.

Twelve investigators from South Korea and 10 from the United States – including officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and plane manufacturer Boeing – are involved in the joint investigation, according to the transport ministry.

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