Authorities investigating the disaster plan to look into what caused the black boxes to stop recording, South Korea's transport ministry says.

Summary

A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashed at Muan International Airport, South Korea, killing 179 people, with only two crew members surviving. The black boxes stopped recording four minutes before the crash.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the malfunctioning black box. They suspect a bird strike, as feathers were found in one engine, and video footage confirmed a bird impact. However, the exact cause of the crash remains elusive.

Investigators are probing why the landing gear wasn’t deployed, the role of power failure in missing black box data, and the construction of the airfield wall the plane hit.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    Hmm. Fair enough.

    Looking at a couple other sources, it also sounds like ADS-B data stopped being transmitted prior to the landing. So that does seem like another data point besides the data recorder maybe cutting out arguing for some measure of electrical issues (which doesn’t necessarily mean that the electrical system is damaged, but for power not to be going to part of the plane’s systems).

    https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/jeju-air-2216-muan/

    The last ADS-B message received from the aircraft occurred at 23:58:50 UTC with the aircraft located at 34.95966, 126.38426 at an altitude of 500 feet approaching Runway 1 at Muan.

    Based on visual evidence (see video below, viewer discretion advised) and the altitude and vertical rate data received by Flightradar24, we believe that the final ADS-B messages received represent preparation for a possible flypast of the airport. A flypast is often performed to visually confirm that the landing gear is either down or not prior to making a decision on next steps. The chart below shows the altitude and reported vertical rate of the aircraft from 2000 feet to the last signal received at 500 feet.

    Post-ADS-B data

    It appears that ADS-B data was either no longer sent by the aircraft or the aircraft was outside our coverage area after 23:58:50 UTC. Based on coverage of previous flights and of other aircraft on the ground at Muan before and after the accident flight, we believe the former explanation is more likely. There are multiple possible explanations for why an aircraft would stop sending ADS-B messages, including loss of electrical power to the transponder, a wider electrical failure, or pilot action on the flight deck.

    EDIT: I did also see a pilot talking about the video and pointing out that while the crew didn’t get flaps or gear, they managed to deploy at least one thrust reverser. I’m not sure what drives that (Do you need hydraulics? Electricity?), but it might say something about what was available to them.