By Lee Hyo-sik
The government has decided to deploy a Navy undersea exploration vessel to locate and retrieve the black box of an Asiana Airlines cargo plane that crashed in waters off Jeju Island in July.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Tuesday that it asked the Navy to mobilize a person transportation capsule (PTC) to assist its ongoing operation to find the black box, which holds the key to understanding how and why the Boeing 747 plunged into the sea.
``We deployed the capsule, which houses three crew members, to the crash site this morning,” said Kim Han-young, director general for the ministry’s aviation policy division. “Two naval vessels are present at the scene to provide logistics and other support for the capsule. We are positive that we can locate the black box this time with the help from the Navy’s state-of-the-art equipment.’’
Kim said the capsule can operate underwater for up to 20 straight days. But given unfavorable weather conditions, it will likely have to come up to the surface about 13 days after the start of the operation.
``A Japanese firm specializing in salvaging ship wreckages has been leading the black box recovery operation. But due to poor underwater visibility and other unfavorable conditions, the company has not been able to achieve its mission,’’ he said.
The deputy minister also said the government had previously considered mobilizing professional divers who can go into the water as deep as 80 to 90 meters.
``But we decided not to because divers can work only for a short period of time, due to health concerns, which makes the salvage operation less efficient. We think the Navy capsule is the best available tool to locate and retrieve the plane’s black box,’’ he said.
After the device is recovered, the government plans to deploy fishing trawlers to salvage the remaining fuselage and parts of the crashed cargo jet from the sea bottom.
The latest move came three weeks after an international search team, including 10 investigation experts from the United States, along with four from Singapore and Taiwan, located the fuselage of the cargo plane on Aug. 17.
The team has placed top priority on locating the plane’s black box, which automatically sends out beacon signals in the event of an accident and a key to solving the mysterious crash. But it has been to no avail.
In total, investigators salvaged 39 parts, scattered in an area of three square-kilometers, about 130 kilometers west of Jeju Island.
Investigators said they have not detected any signals, adding the device may have broken up or is buried under thick mud. They have been using sonar and unmanned submersible vehicles in the search.
On July 28, Asiana’s B747 cargo plane, departing from Incheon International Airport at 3:05 a.m. for Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, disappeared from the radar at 4:12 a.m. while trying to return to Jeju nine minutes after reporting a fire.
Debris was found in waters 130 kilometers west of Jeju about two and a half hours later. Authorities initially suspected that flammable material in the cargo caught fire, saying the captain spoke of a ``cargo fire emergency’’ in the last communication with the Shanghai control center.
The plane was carrying 400 kilograms of items including lithium batteries, paint and liquefied amino acid, along with other goods like semiconductors.
But citing some insurance firms, media outlets raised speculation that the crash may have been intentional as one of the two missing pilots purchased a number of life and property insurance policies totaling more than 3 billion won ($2.8 million), just a month before the accident.
The bodies of the two pilots have not been found.
In response, Asiana and the bereaved family flatly denied such accusations. They said it makes no sense for the pilot who earned 200 million won a year to engage in an insurance scam by taking his life and destroying the airplane full of highly valuable cargo.
The 52-year-old captain Choi Sang-ki had purchased seven life and non-life insurance policies between June 28 and July 18. Ten days later the plane went down.
News reports that he is heavily indebted also stoked possibility of an insurance scam. If Choi is declared dead due to an accident, his insurance beneficiaries will collect the 3 billion won, according to insurers.