Seoul, Jan 1 (NationPress) The South Korean government announced on Wednesday its decision to send the flight data recorder from the downed Jeju aircraft to the United States for further examination.
The precise schedule for transferring the flight recorder will be established in collaboration with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), according to a briefing from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as reported by Yonhap news agency.
Earlier retrieved from the wreckage of the Jeju Air B737-800 at Muan International Airport, the flight recorder has reportedly suffered some external damage, including the loss of a connector that connects its data storage unit to the power supply.
Joo Jong-wan, director of the aviation policy division at the ministry, stated, “We have determined that extracting data from the damaged flight data recorder here is not feasible. Therefore, we have coordinated with the NTSB to send it to the US for analysis.”
He added that South Korean experts will be involved in the analysis process in the US.
Meanwhile, authorities have successfully extracted data from the cockpit voice data recorder, which was found in a relatively better state, and have begun converting this data into voice files, the ministry reported earlier.
Additionally, two more investigators from Boeing Co. have joined the ongoing investigation into the Jeju Air crash at Muan International Airport, according to government sources.
This brings the total number of US team members to 10, including six from Boeing and three from the NTSB.
Sources indicate that the US team has increased its presence to ensure a comprehensive investigation of the incident.
The US team arrived in South Korea on Monday and went straight to Muan, where they started their joint investigation with the Korean team led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport the following day.
During their initial joint investigation on-site, they focused on a navigation system that aids in aircraft landings, known as a localiser.
The localiser, which is installed on a concrete structure at Muan International Airport, has been implicated in worsening the severity of casualties during the Jeju Air crash.
The Jeju Air B737-800 aircraft belly-landed at the airport and exploded on Sunday after crashing into the structure, resulting in the tragic loss of 179 lives out of 181 passengers on board.
