FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Investigators have finished extracting data from one of the black boxes from the ill-fated Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday. The data from the cockpit voice recorder will now be converted to an audio file, while a second black box, a flight data recorder, will be sent to the United States for analysis.
Investigators hope the flight data and voice recorders will provide insight into the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy. About 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 possible 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 discussions with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about when the flight data recorder should be handed over. The 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 was traveling from Bangkok when it landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and skidded into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames and killing all but two crew members on board. Many questions remain unanswered, and investigators are looking at what role bird strikes or weather conditions may have played.
They are also examining the concrete wall at the end of the runway, which some experts say may have worsened the impact of the crash. According to Yonhap news agency, passengers on flight 7C2216 ranged in age from three to 78, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities said.
Officials took days to identify the bodies through fingerprints or DNA, with saliva samples collected from family members, as many were badly injured. But on Wednesday, Acting President Choi Sang-mok announced that all 179 victims on board the plane had now been identified.
New Year's Day celebrations across the country have been canceled or scaled back out of respect for the victims and their families, and authorities have declared a seven-day period of national mourning. At a press conference on Tuesday, Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims' families and would cover funeral expenses. He also said a pre-flight inspection of the plane had found "no problems". Investigations into the causes of the crash are still ongoing.
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