The South Korean Ministry of Transport said that investigators have finished extracting data from one of the black boxes of the ill-fated Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday.
Data from the cockpit voice recorder will now be converted into an audio file, although authorities said it would take more time to access the data in the second black box – the flight data recorder.
Investigators hope that data from the flight and voice recorders will provide insights into the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy.
About 179 people died after the plane crashed into a building and exploded, making it the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.
Vice Civil Aviation Minister Jo Jung-wan said investigators are now discussing the best way to decrypt the flight data recorder, which currently lacks a crucial connector.
Officials from the US National Transportation Safety Board have been deployed to Muan to join the investigation into the Jeju Airlines plane crash.
The Boeing 737-800 plane was coming from Bangkok when it crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and collided with a wall at the end of the runway, causing it to catch fire and killing all those on board except for two crew members.
Many questions remain unanswered, and investigators are looking into what role bird strikes or weather conditions may have played.
Yonhap News Agency reported that the ages of the passengers on board Flight 7C2216 ranged from three to 78 years, although most of them were in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Authorities said two Thai citizens were among the dead and the rest were believed to be from South Korea.
It took officials days to identify the bodies through fingerprints or DNA – along with saliva samples collected from family members – as many were severely damaged.
But on Wednesday, Acting President Choi Sang-mok announced that all 179 victims on board the plane have now been identified.
New Year celebrations across the country were canceled or reduced out of respect for the victims and their families, and authorities declared a seven-day national mourning period.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims' families and would cover funeral costs.
He also said that a pre-flight inspection of the plane found “no problems.” Investigations into the cause of the accident are still ongoing.
