The flight recorder, retrieved earlier from the wreckage of the Jeju Air B737-800 aircraft at Muan International Airport, reportedly sustained some external damage, missing a connector that links its data storage unit to the power supply.
"We have determined that extracting data from the damaged flight data recorder here is not possible," said Joo Jong-wan, director of the aviation policy division at the ministry. "And so we have agreed with the NTSB to send it to the U.S. and analyze it there."
South Korean experts will participate in the analysis process in the U.S., he added.
However, the authorities have completed extracting data from the cockpit voice data recorder, found in a relatively better condition, and started converting it into voice files, the ministry said earlier.