Flight recorders on doomed Korean airliner stopped recording
by Rob Beschizza · Boing BoingThe last minutes of the Jeju Air jet that crash-landed in December, killing all but two aboard, remain a mystery: the black box did not record the flight's final moments after a reported bird strike. Both the flight data and cabin audio recorders lack the last four minutes. The plane's landing gear and flaps did not deploy and it came in so far down the runway that it skidded into a berm and concrete wall at the end of the asphalt.
The ministry said it would analyse what caused the "black boxes" to stop recording.The recorders were originally examined in South Korea, the ministry said. … When the data was found to be missing, they were taken to the US and analysed by American safety regulators. … Jim Jai-dong, a former transport ministry accident investigator, told Reuters news agency that the loss of data from the crucial final minutes was surprising and suggested that all power, including back-up, could have been cut.
The implication, of total loss of power, may be explained by shutting off the wrong engine after the bird strike.