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South Korea Jeju Air jet black boxes stopped taping 4 minutes before crash, ministry states

The flight data and cockpit voice recorders on the Jeju Air jet that crashed on Dec. 29 stopped recording about four minutes before the airliner hit a. concrete structure at South Korea's Muan airport, the transportation. ministry said on Saturday.

Authorities examining the catastrophe that eliminated 179. people, the worst on South Korean soil, plan to evaluate what. caused the black boxes to stop recording, the ministry said in. a declaration.

The voice recorder was initially evaluated in South Korea,. and, when information was found to be missing, then sent to a U.S. National Transport Security Board lab, the ministry. said.

The damaged flight data recorder was taken to the United. States for analysis in cooperation with the U.S. safety. regulator, the ministry has actually said.

Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed the Thai capital Bangkok for. Muan in southwestern South Korea, belly-landed and overshot the. regional airport's runway, exploding into flames after hitting. an embankment.

The pilots told air traffic control service the aircraft had. suffered a bird strike and declared emergency about 4 minutes. before it crashed into the embankment taking off in flames. 2. hurt team members, sitting in the tail section, were rescued.

(source: Reuters)