The investigation into South Korea’s recent deadly plane crash has underscored a shortcoming first identified more than two decades ago — that older aircraft lack the technology to keep the cockpit voice recorder working when the main power sources fail.

The two flight recorders on board a South Korean airliner stopped working before the jet crashed during an emergency landing and subsequent crash that killed 179 of the 181 people on board, officials said Saturday.

South Korea Eyes Changes As Jeju Air Crash Probe Continues is published in Aviation Daily, an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) Market Briefing and is included with your AWIN membership. Already a member of AWIN or subscribe to Aviation Daily through your company? Login with your existing email and password

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.

FileThe two back boxes on the Jeju passenger jet that crashed last month in South Korea stopped recording four minutes before the accident. That's according to a statement released on Saturday by the country’s Ministry of Transport,

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board first recommended that cockpit voice recorders be fitted with an independent power source in the late 1990s.

The black boxes of the Jeju Air plane involved in last month's fatal crash has been found to lack data from the final four minutes before the explosion.

The black boxes from the Boeing (NYSE:BA) jet involved in South Koreas deadliest aviation disaster stopped recording four minutes before the crash, according to the transport ministry. The tragedy claimed 179 lives,