Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, coming from Bangkok with 181 people on board, was preparing to land at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea at 8:59 a.m. on Dec. 29 when its pilot reported, “Mayday, mayday, mayday,” and, “Bird strike, bird strike,” according to officials. The pilot also told the air traffic control tower that he was “going around,” meaning he would abort his first landing attempt and circle in the air to prepare for a second one.
But he apparently did not have enough time to make a full circle. Instead, the plane approached the runway from the opposite direction and landed on its belly, without its landing gear deployed. Seeming unable to control its speed, it overshot the runway. Four minutes after the Mayday emergency report, the plane slammed into a concrete structure off the southern end of the runway and exploded into flames.
A key question has been: What happened during those four minutes?
“The black box data is crucial in the investigation,” said Hwang Ho-won, the chairman of the Korea Association for Aviation Security. “If the investigators don’t have it, it will create a serious problem for them.”
The missing data adds mystery to the crash, which was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil and the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people on board died.
Mr. Hwang said black boxes could be damaged by impact, fire or prolonged exposure to deep water. But it was hard to explain how the Jeju Air black box failed to record in its last four minutes, he said.
