Black box found in South Korea plane crash, 174 dead confirmed

On December 29, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea said that the investigation unit had collected two black boxes from the plane that crashed that morning at Muan International Airport in the county of the same name, South Jeolla Province of this country.

According to an official of the ministry, authorities will analyze the data in the two black boxes to investigate the cause of the accident.

According to Yonhap news agency, the death toll in this horrific plane crash has now risen to 174 people.

The plane was carrying 181 people, including six crew members, when it crashed, the Korean National Fire Agency said. Two people were rescued.

The above Jeju Air plane is a Boeing 737-800, departing from Bangkok (Thailand) at 1:30 a.m. (local time) and expected to arrive in Muan at around 8:30 a.m.

Most of the passengers were Korean (173 people) and there were 2 Thai citizens, mostly between the ages of 40-60. Authorities are still actively searching for bodies and have identified 22 victims.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, an air traffic control station issued a bird strike warning just six minutes before the accident. A minute later, the pilot issued an emergency signal.

Following the tragedy, South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok designated Muan as a special disaster zone. The presidential office said it had convened an emergency meeting to discuss the entire incident, inter-agency coordination to investigate the cause of the accident, and medical and other support. The presidential office also decided to maintain a 24-hour emergency response system.

Jeju Air CEO Kim E Bae also apologized and shared the pain of loss with all the passengers' relatives, and pledged to provide necessary support to the victims' families.