Two engines of crashed Jeju Air jet moved to hangar for investigation

Seoul, Jan 5 South Korea's Transport Ministry said on Sunday that authorities have moved two engines from the Jeju Air jet involved in a deadly crash last weekend to a hangar for a full-scale investigation.

The Jeju Air plane, with 181 people onboard returning from Bangkok, crashed while landing at Muan International Airport in the southwestern county of Muan on December 29, killing all but two, aboard.

One of the engines was transported to the hangar Friday, while the other was moved the previous day, the Transport Ministry said.

Authorities have also completed transcribing the two-hour audio recorded in the cockpit voice recorder, which may provide more clues about the cause of the accident.

The ministry said two aviation investigators plan to take the flight data recorder to the US National Transportation Safety Board on Monday for analysis, Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korea will also carry out a special investigation into 101 B737-800 planes, the same model as the crashed jet, currently operated by six South Korean air carriers, through Friday.

Earlier, Yonhap news agency had reported that South Korean investigators were set to finalise compiling the transcript of the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of the crashed Jeju Air plane, the Transport Ministry had said on Saturday.

The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport was expected to draw up the complete transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, or CVR, on Saturday as part of its probe into the crash.

The recording might have held clues to the final moments of the crash, though the ministry had stated that it would not make it public until the investigation was completed.

The flight data recorder, or FDR, was in the process of being prepared for transport to the United States for analysis, according to the ministry.

Source: IANS