The plane's flight recorders will be sent to the United States... ...to investigate first with a week's goal.

[Anchor]
A flight recorder that will play a key role in determining the cause of the Muan Jeju Air plane disaster has left for the United States.

The U.S. Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, which will decipher the black box, has agreed to prioritize our case, and the work is expected to take about a week.

I'm connecting with the reporter. Reporter Kim Ki-bong, how will the detoxification of the flight recorder proceed in the future?

[Reporter]
Yes, the flight recorder, FDR, left for the United States at 1:15 p.m. on a counter-air flight with two investigators from our accident investigation committee.

The FDR was originally scheduled to depart at 10:15 a.m., but the departure was delayed by three hours due to heavy snow around Dulles Airport in Washington, DC.

Once the flight recorder arrives, the NTSB will start extracting data the next day.

To this end, the accident investigation committee said that the NTSB discussed the work schedule through agents dispatched to Korea, and that the agreement was made to deal with it first because it was a serious issue that caused a lot of casualties.

The FDR records information on the flight path, speed, flight posture, engine thrust, output, and operation of the last 25 hours, and converts the encrypted information into a form that can be decoded and checked.

An official of the accident investigation committee said the work period is set at about a week.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has already finished writing the transcript with the contents of another black box, the voice recorder, so a comprehensive judgment is expected when the flight recorder is decoded.

[Anchor]
Yes, apart from the black box, what kind of investigation is being conducted at the accident site today?

[Reporter]
Yes. First of all, the accident investigation committee is focusing on two engines on both sides of the aircraft that have been moved to the hangar.

Whether the bird strike is definitely correct, whether both engines are completely shut down, etc.

In addition, we tried to investigate the landing gear, which is known to have not worked at the time of the accident, but it is a little difficult to investigate today due to severe winds at the site.

Unlike engines that have moved to hangars, the landing gear remains at the site, making the investigation itself physically difficult due to the wind, the investigation committee said.

The investigation committee decided to investigate the main wings at the same time, but it is not possible due to weather conditions today.

Therefore, the investigation committee is conducting interviews with the runway, the location of migratory birds, and the airport neighbors who witnessed the accident.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has extended the runway closure period at Muan International Airport until 5 a.m. on the 14th to conduct an accident investigation.

In the meantime, as Jeju Air increased its aircraft utilization rate after the COVID-19 ended, delays in departure and arrival due to aircraft maintenance also increased significantly.
According to the data submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Lee Yeon-hee's office, it was reported that it recorded the highest number among domestic airlines in the first half of last year.

I'm Kim Ki Bong of YTN.