The transport ministry officially recognized that the ill-fated Jeju Air plane that crashed at Muan International Airport on December 29 had experienced a bird strike at the time of the accident.

Lee Seung-yeol, head of investigation at the ministry's probe committee, said on Tuesday that the panel has verified that a bird strike had taken place before the plane crash.

Lee said investigators found parts of bird feathers while digging out dirt from the plane's engine.

The probe chief said while one of the two engines from the plane is certain to have been affected by the bird strike, further investigation is required for the second engine.

Lee, however, said even if the probe finds that there had been a severe case of bird strike, it does not necessarily indicate that the engine had immediately failed.

While data retrieval and basic data verification by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board's(NTSB) flight data recorder analysis normally takes several days, Lee said a comprehensive analysis with the cockpit voice recorder and closed-circuit television could take several months.