The nation’s transport ministry reviewed structures near airport runways after the deadly crash of a Jeju Air flight late last month.

Seoul: The flight data and cockpit voice recorders on the Jeju Air jet that crashed on December 29, killing 179 people, stopped recording approximately four minutes before the aircraft collided with a concrete structure at South Korea's Muan Airport,

South Korea’s leading low-cost carrier, heavy with debt and its stock already near record lows, is now facing intense public and government scrutiny.

Before it suffered the deadliest crash in South Korea's history, budget airline Jeju Air was moving fast: racking up record passenger numbers and flying its aircraft more than domestic rivals and many of its global peers,

The black boxes of the crashed Jeju Air plane stopped recording flight data four minutes before the aircraft crashed in the worst accident in South Korean aviation history, the Ministry of Transport reported on Saturday.

The exact cause of the Boeing 737-800 crash is still unknown, but investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear and the runway barrier as possible issues.

The two black boxes on the Boeing jet involved in the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, the transport ministry said on Saturday. South Korean investigators previously said the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were key to finding out the cause of last month's crash that killed 179 people.

South Korean carrier Jeju Air has prematurely ended its charter flights from Busan to the Northern Marianas capital, Saipan. The airline was due to end its service to Saipan on 25, February. But the date was brought forward following the horrific Jeju Air plane crash in December at Muan International Airport that killed 179 people.

As investigators look into what caused Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 to crash, the airline has come under intense government and public scrutiny for how it operates. Some of its operational practices are being challenged, including how it flew its planes more frequently than competitors and how it outsourced its maintenance overseas.

South Korea said it planned to improve the structures housing the antennas that guide landings at its airports this year after December's fatal crash of a Jeju Air plane, which skidded off the runway and burst into flames after hitting such a structure.