Damaged black box from crashed South Korean plane will be sent to US for analysis as investigation ramps up | National & World [Video]

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — The damaged flight data recorder from the Jeju Air passenger jet that crash-landed in South Korea will be sent to the United States for analysis, Seoul’s transport ministry said Wednesday, as bereaved families began visiting the crash site.

The recorder is one of two “black boxes” retrieved from the Boeing 737-800 after it belly-landed at Muan International Airport in the country’s southwest on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people onboard, the deadliest aviation accident for South Korea in almost three decades.

Authorities said the black box was damaged in the crash, and concluded that South Korea is not capable of extracting the data, Seoul’s deputy minister of civil aviation Joo Jong-wan told reporters Wednesday. Earlier, Joo said the flight data recorder was missing a connector.

Once the device has been sent overseas, the US National Transportation Safety Board will lead the analysis and be joined by South Korean investigators. It is not clear how long the process will …