Investigators have finished extracting data from one of the black boxes from the fated Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday, South Korea’s transport ministry has said.
The data from the cockpit voice recorder will now be converted into an audio file, while a second black box – a flight data recorder – will be sent to the United States for analysis.
Investigators hope data on the flight and voice recorders will provide insights about the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy.
Some 179 people died after the plane crashed into a structure and exploded, making it the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.
Investigators say it is not feasible to locally decode the flight data recorder, which was damaged in the crash and is missing a crucial connector.
South Korean experts will be involved in the analysis process in the US, they said, adding that they are in discussion with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on when to hand over the flight data recorder.
NTSB has deployed officials to the crash site in South Korea’s Muan county to help investigate the cause of the plane crash.
The Boeing 737-800 plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and slid into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames and killing everyone on board except two crew members.
Many questions remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.
They are also examining the concrete wall at the end of the runway, which some experts say could have exacerbated the impact of the crash.
The passengers on flight 7C2216 were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities have said.
It had taken officials days to identify the bodies through fingerprints or DNA – with saliva samples collected from family members – as many of them have been severely damaged.
But on Wednesday, acting president Choi Sang-mok announced that all 179 victims on board the flight have now been identified.
New Year’s Day celebrations across the country have been cancelled or scaled down out of respect for the victims and their family, and authorities have announced a seven-day period of national mourning.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said that the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims’ families and would cover funeral costs.
He also said that a pre-flight inspection of the plane had found “no issues”. Investigations into the cause of the crash are still ongoing.
