Black box of South Korea's crashed plane stops recording after bird strike warning

SEOUL - The black box of an airplane that crashed in South Korea's southwestern airport late last month stopped recording just a minute after the warning of bird strike, the transport ministry said Saturday.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's aviation railway accident investigation committee held a meeting with the bereaved families to disclose the analysis of the passenger jet's flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

The flight control tower warned the ill-fated plane of a possible bird strike just one minute before the jet's FDR and CVR stopped recording simultaneously.

Immediately before the discontinued recording, the plane's power supply was believed to have been cut off as both of its engines collided with birds.

One of the pilots declared a Mayday, caused by the bird strike, to the control tower during a go-around.

The airport's closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed that the airplane struck a flock of birds, while feathers and bloodstains of one of the country's most common winter birds were found from both of the engines.

On Dec 29 last year, the passenger jet landed without heels, skidded off the runway and hit a concrete mound equipped with a localizer at the end of the runway at Muan International Airport, some 290 km southwest of the capital Seoul.

The localizer refers to a part of the instrument landing system providing aircraft with runway centerline guidance.

A total of 179 of the 181 people aboard the aircraft were confirmed dead. Only two were rescued.