This development follows the death of 179 persons out of 181 on board Jeju Air Flight 2216 which crashed on Sunday.
Amid an ongoing investigation into the deadliest-ever air disaster on South Korean soil, South Korea has banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae from leaving the country.
This development follows the death of 179 persons out of 181 on board Jeju Air Flight 2216 which crashed on Sunday.
South Korean authorities said on Wednesday that they extracted the initial data from one of the crashed Boeing 737-800’s two black boxes, with the other to be sent to the US for analysis due to the damage it suffered in the crash, Al Jazeera reports.
The Boeing 737-800 belly-landed on the runway, without its landing gear deployed, shortly after the pilot reported a bird strike to air traffic control, before skidding into a concrete embankment and exploding into flames.
Following the development, the police raided Muan international airport, the offices of Jeju Air and a regional aviation body.
The Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency carried out the “search and seizure operation” at the three locations on Thursday morning, officials said.
South Korean officials have launched an inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in operation as well as a wider probe of the country’s entire airline operations.
South Korean acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said on Thursday that immediate action must be taken if the inspections revealed any problems with the aircraft model.
Although an exact cause of the incident has not been announced, aviation experts have mentioned possible causes and contributing factors in the disaster.
Some of the stated factors included a collision with birds, mechanical failure, and the presence of a hardened embankment less than 300 metres (328 yards) from the end of the runway.