In a significant development, it has emerged the black boxes on the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 stopped recording minutes before the crash.
This aircraft crashed on December 29 at Muan International Airport in South Korea.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
A Recap of the Jeju Air Crash…
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, which crashed in Muan, South Korea and suffered the issues with the black boxes, originally came from Bangkok, and is a routine scheduled flight utilised by the Boeing 737-800.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was HL8088.
As per data from Planespotters.net, HL8088 is a 15.4 year old Boeing 737-800 that started out life with Ryanair as EI-EFR in September 2009.
Moreover, it was delivered to Jeju Air in February 2017.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216 departed Bangkok at 0211 local time on December 29th and tracked normally towards Muan, South Korea prior to the crash.
Also, video footage shows what appears to have been a no-gear landing into the South Korean airport.
From there, the aircraft overshot the runway and suffered an impact with a mound at the airport.
Not long after that incident, another Jeju Air 737-800 suffered landing gear issues, but landed safely.
Following the crash of Jeju Air flight 7C2216, South Korea ordered inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
The Jeju Air CEO confirmed that there were also no prior issues with the aircraft that crashed.
Moreover, the revelation of the black boxes not working came following the flight data being sent to the U.S for analysis.
Black Boxes Stopped Recording Minutes Before The Crash…
It has now been confirmed that the black boxes on the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 that crashed in South Korea stopped recording four minutes prior to the crash.
The Yonhap News Agency confirmed that the black boxes had stopped transmitting at 0859 local time.
It was also the same time that the pilots had suffered a bird strike to the starboard engine, which may have cut off power to the entire aircraft.
This will no doubt make the investigation a little more difficult to conduct, as this flight data is important to determine what happened.
Furthermore, this accident is still being investigated, with no time in sight currently for the preliminary report.
What Next?
Looking ahead, there isn’t much more that can be done following the Jeju Air Crash. With the black boxes being as damaged as they are, it will make things more difficult.
The fact it didn’t record the last few minutes of the flight would indicate a power loss.
What caused the power loss still needs to be formally confirmed by investigators.
In this case, all eyes turn to what the preliminary report will say from investigators.
The last few weeks has caused a lot of turmoil for the airline.
One thing is for sure: This development will be the last thing that they would want.
As soon as we hear more information regarding the outcome of the investigation, we will update you accordingly.
For now, this remains a developing story.
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