SEOUL: The South Korean government announced plans to send the flight data recorder from the Jeju Air plane that crashed at Muan International Airport to the United States for analysis. This decision follows difficulties in extracting data from the damaged recorder on-site, as confirmed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the exact timeline for transferring the flight recorder will be determined through discussions with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The recorder, retrieved from the wreckage of the Jeju Air B737-800, is missing a crucial connector, hindering data extraction. "We have determined that extracting data from the damaged flight data recorder here is not possible," stated Joo Jong-wan, director of the aviation policy division at the ministry. South Korean experts are expected to participate in the analysis process in the U.S.

In contrast, data from the cockpit voice recorder, which was in better condition, has already been extracted and is being converted into voice files. Meanwhile, the investigation team at the crash site has grown with the addition of two investigators from Boeing Co., bringing the total number of U.S. team members to 10. This includes personnel from Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

The expanded U.S. team is focused on ensuring a comprehensive examination of the crash. They arrived in South Korea on Monday and began their joint investigation with the Korean team the following day. Initial investigations have concentrated on the localizer, a navigation aid for aircraft landings, at Muan International Airport. The localizer, housed within a concrete structure, has been implicated in increasing the severity of the crash, which resulted in the tragic loss of 179 lives out of 181 passengers when the aircraft crash-landed and exploded.