Just after a Jeju Air aircraft plummeted to the ground killing 179 people during its landing at South Korea Muan Airport, Korean officials reveal that the black box constitutes of data that happened a full 4 minutes before the tragic incident.

‘The black boxes including the flight data as well as the cockpit voice recorders for the device, had stopped recording a total of 4 minutes before the disaster’’, South Korean transportation ministry stated, in a report from the Reuters.

By closely analyzing both devices that have been recorded the ministry was able to conclude with the statement, ‘The analysis revealed that both the CVR and FDR did not record data during the 4 minute window just before the aircraft collided with the localiser’.

They are now attempting to gather information on what had led the black boxes to cease functioning, to do this, the data has been sent to the US National Transport Safety Board Laboratory.

What Happened On 29th December?

On December 29, a 181 personnel carrying Boeing 737-800 returning from Thailand made a belly landing in South Korea and due to this, the plane mowed down the concrete barrier present at the airport and turned into a fireball.

This incident is considered the worst aviation disaster to ever take place in South Korean history. One of the major aviation catastrophes South Korea faced a couple of decades ago was in 1997 when a KAL flight that was flying towards the island of Guam crashed leaving all 228 people on board dead.

A warning about a potential bird strike was communicated to the crew by the control tower during the descent phase. Following this warning, the crew contacted the control tower and attempted to divert from a runway at the Muan international airport and land from other assets that enabled them to send a mayday signal.

The touchdown on the controlled airstrip did not go as planned and the aircraft collided with the concrete fence that surrounded the airstrip and exploded shortly afterwards. The official account states that the trains landing gears had broken after they touch the ground.