Flight data and cockpit voice recorders of the South Korean airliner that crashed last month stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, the country’s Transportation Ministry said.
The Jeju Air flight crash killed 179 people, making it the deadliest air accident on Korean soil. Two cabin crew members are the only survivors.
Investigators hoped the data recorded in the recorders would provide insight into the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy.
The ministry said it would analyze the reasons why the “black boxes” stopped recording.
The recorders were initially examined in South Korea, the ministry said.
When the data was found to be missing, it was transferred to the United States and analyzed by American safety regulators.
The plane was arriving from Bangkok on December 29 when it crashed at Muan International Airport and slid into a wall at the end of the runway, catching fire.
Sim Jai-dong, a former accident investigator at the Transport Ministry, told the Reuters news agency that the loss of data from the crucial final minutes was surprising and suggested that all power supply, including emergency one , could have been cut.
Many questions remain unanswered. Investigators looked into the role that a bird strike or weather conditions could have played.
They also focused on why the Boeing 737-800’s landing gear was not extended when it hit the runway.
