January 17, 2025
SEOUL – A joint investigation between Korea and the United States has been underway to figure out what caused the deadly Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crash that killed 179 passengers and crew at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province on Dec. 29 with only two survivors on board.
Joint investigative team
The two countries have put together a joint probe team of 12 investigators from Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, one official from the US Federal Aviation Administration, three members of the US National Transportation Safety Board, six officials from Boeing and one from GE Aerospace.
Retrieved black box
Two black box recording devices have been recovered:
– Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR): The CVR contains a two-hour-recording of what was said by the pilots and any other sounds or noises such as warnings by the aircraft systems prior to the end of a flight operation or an accident. This record will help investigators understand what the pilots were hearing, seeing and doing in the final minutes leading up to the crash.
– Flight Data Recorder (FDR): The FDR contains a 25-hour log of the aircraft’s flight path, flight controls, engine power systems, electrical and hydraulic systems, etc. prior to the end of a flight operation or an accident. The FDR has been sent to the US as it was missing a connector to extract the data. The Korean and US authorities have begun extracting the data from the FDR in the US, where the technology to methodically read the data is available.
Missing data
Investigative authorities found that the data of the final four minutes from both the CVR and FDR were missing as they stopped recording data after the pilot reported mayday, bird strike and go-around, which refers to a procedure to abort a landing and reattempt under safer conditions, at 8:59 a.m. The flight eventually conducted a belly-landing and collided with the localizer antenna and exploded at 9:03 a.m.
What’s next
The investigation could take months, especially in consideration of the crucial missing data from the final four minutes. Under Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Annex, a United Nations agency, a preliminary report of the Jeju Air crash should be submitted to the involved states and the ICAO within 30 days of the accident, which will be Jan. 27, followed by a final report issued within a year of the accident.