Cockpit voice recordings pulled from South Korean plane’s black box as chilling clue could reveal cause of deadly crash
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COCKPIT voice recordings have been retrieved from the black box on the doomed South Korean plane. All but two of the 181 people on board the Jeju Air jet were killed on Sunday when the plane crashed into a concrete wall after an emergency landing. Authorities are now probing what caused the disaster and are examining the black box.
![[A police forensic team conducts an on-site investigation at the scene of the Jeju Air crash]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/yonhap-newcom-alamy-live-news-960728378.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Data from the cockpit voice recorder has been extracted and is being converted into voice files. It could offer critical information to try to explain the few minutes that led up to the crash. South Korea's transport ministry said it could take about two days for investigators to convert the data to audio files.
![[The wrecked tail section of the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/181-people-thailand-south-korea-960557839.jpg?strip=all&w=780)
The pilot issued a mayday call and reported a bird strike before making the emergency landing. After hitting the tarmac at high speed, the jet then careered into a concrete wall and exploded into a fireball. Serious questions are now being asked over whether the disaster could have been avoided - and what caused it.
![[The plane went up in flames after crashing]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/181-people-bangkok-south-korea-960290063.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Forensic teams have been pictured combing through the wreckage of the plane as grieving families of the 179 victims demand answers. The flight recorder, retrieved from the wreckage at Muan International Airport, was damaged and missing a connector that links its data storage unit to the power supply.
Joo Jong-wan, director of the aviation policy division at the ministry, said: "We have determined that extracting data from the damaged flight data recorder here is not possible. "And so we have agreed with the NTSB to send it to the US and analyze it there.".
