ValuJet Flight 592

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**ValuJet Airlines Flight 592**
Summary
Date	May 11, 1996
Type	Inflight fire
Site	Florida Everglades
Fatalities	110
Injuries	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
Operator	ValuJet Airlines
Tail number	N904VJ
Passengers	105
Crew	5
Survivors	0

ValuJet Flight 592 was a flight that crashed on May 11, 1996 en route from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida to Hartsfield International Airport (now known as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) in Atlanta, Georgia. The crash destroyed the credibility of the low-cost carrier ValuJet Airlines.

1 Accident
2 Investigation
3 Culpability
4 Everglades Memorial
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Accident

The 27 year old DC-9 aircraft on this route, N904VJ, previously owned by Delta Air Lines, took off after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes at 2:04 pm and began a normal climb, however at 2:10 p.m. asked air traffic control for a return to Miami due to smoke in the cockpit and cabin. Captain Candi Kubeck and First Officer Richard Hazen were given instructions for a return to the airport. Seconds later, shouts of "fire, fire, fire, fire" were recorded on the plane's cockpit voice recorder coming from the cabin. A flight attendant opened the cockpit door and informed the flight crew that the cabin was on fire, even though the ValuJet flight attendant manual stated that the cockpit door should not be opened when smoke or other harmful gases may be present in the cabin. The plane's interior was completely on fire.

Flight 592 disappeared from radar at 2:14 p.m. It crashed in Browns Farm Wildlife Management area in the Everglades, a few miles west of Miami. Kubeck, Hazen, the three flight attendants and all 105 passengers aboard were killed. Recovery of the aircraft and victims was made extremely difficult by the location of the crash. The nearest road of any kind was more than a quarter of a mile (401 m) away from the crash scene, and the location of the crash itself was summarized as deep-water swamp with a bedrock base. The DC-9 shattered on impact with the bedrock, leaving very few large portions of the plane intact. Sawgrass, alligators, and risk of bacterial infection from cuts plagued searchers involved in the recovery effort. Passengers killed included San Diego Chargers running back Rodney Culver, former University of Miami offensive lineman Robert Woodus, and renowned songwriter and musician Walter Hyatt.

[edit] Investigation

The NTSB investigation eventually determined that the source of the fire that downed Flight 592 was a cargo compartment below the passenger portion of the plane. The cargo compartment's fire suppression amounted to a no-air recycling environment, so a standard fire would have simply run out of air and burned itself out.

It was determined that the fire was caused by the firing of expired chemical oxygen generators placed in the cargo compartment in five boxes marked COMAT (company-owned material) by ValuJet's maintenance contractor, SabreTech. The generators should not have been shipped in this manner in the first place, since they were hazardous materials. Making the matter worse was the fact that the firing pins for the generators were not properly protected with plastic sleeves to prevent an unintended firing of the generator, and that the canisters were not empty as had been indicated on the cargo manifest.

Chemical oxygen generators, when fired, produce oxygen. As a byproduct of the chemical reaction, they also produce a great quantity of heat. These two together were sufficient to not only start an accidental fire, but also produce the oxygen to keep the fire burning at an extremely high temperature, made much worse by the presence of readily combustible aircraft wheels in the hold. When the plane experienced a slight jolt while taxiing on the runway, an oxygen canister fired and started to produce oxygen and heat of more than 500° F (260° C). The oxygen from the generators fueled the resulting fire in the cargo hold of the plane. ValuJet was blamed for improper oversight of SabreTech and the FAA was faulted for failing to properly monitor ValuJet. A pop and jolt traced in the air traffic control tape was attributed to a semi-inflated aircraft wheel exploding in the high temperature fire. Two main tires and wheels, a nose tire and wheel was also included in the COMAT.

The cylindrical, tennis ball can-sized generators were loaded on board in the mistaken belief that their manufacturers, SabreTech, had carried out proper procedures for dealing with unfired canisters (the company workers claimed that the canisters were either "empty" or they had been dealt with properly, when in fact more than half of them were full and not correctly made safe). Had that been the case, the canisters would have posed no serious threat.

It is believed that even with the generators in the cargo hold, the plane could have been saved. In 1988 American Airlines Flight 132 a MD-80 suffered from a similar accident. A cargo hold fire caused by hazardous materials started, but fortunately the aircraft landed safely. After this incident, the NTSB recommended to the FAA that all class D cargo holds have smoke detectors and/or fire suppression systems.^[1] However, it was never mandated.

If there had been smoke detectors, the crew would have seen warnings that there was a fire and evacuated the plane, thus aborting the take-off. If there had been a fire-suppression system, the fire would have been extinguished and the flight would have continued without incident. It wasn't until 2001 that suppression systems and smoke detectors have been mandated in all class D holds.

[edit] Culpability

The NTSB placed fault for ValuJet Flight 592 on three parties: SabreTech, for illegally transporting dangerous materials aboard a commercial aircraft, improperly labeling them, and not providing safety equipment to ship them; ValuJet, for not properly supervising SabreTech; and the FAA, for not properly supervising ValuJet and not requiring active fire suppression equipment in this cargo compartment.

In 1997, a federal grand jury charged SabreTech with mishandling hazardous materials, failing to train its employees on proper handling of hazardous materials, criminal conspiracy and making false statements. SabreTech's maintenance supervisor, Daniel Gonzalez, and two mechanics who worked on the plane, Eugene Florence and Mauro Valenzuela, were charged with conspiracy and making false statements. In 1999, SabreTech was found guilty of mishandling hazardous materials and improper training. It was fined $2 million and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution. Gonzalez and Florence were acquitted on all charges; Valenzuela failed to appear, and is currently missing. This verdict was largely thrown out by the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001. It found that federal law at the time of the crash did not support a conviction for mishandling hazardous materials and added that SabreTech had no intention to cause any harm. However, it did uphold the conviction for improper training, and SabreTech was later sentenced to a $500,000 fine, three years' probation and no restitution. Just before the federal trial, a Florida grand jury indicted SabreTech on 110 counts of manslaughter and 110 counts of third-degree murder; one for each person who died in the crash. However, in 2001 SabreTech settled the charges out of court. It pleaded no contest to a state charge of mishandling hazardous waste and agreed to donate $500,000 to an aviation safety group and a Miami-Dade County charity.

SabreTech was the first American aviation company to be criminally prosecuted for its role in an American airline crash. The company, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Sabreliner Corporation, went out of business in 1999.

ValuJet was grounded by the FAA on June 16, 1996. It was allowed to resume flying again on September 30, but never recovered from the crash. In 1997, it merged with AirTran. Although ValuJet was the nominal survivor, the ValuJet name was so tarnished by this time that it decided to take the AirTran name. It mentions almost nothing of its past as ValuJet.

Many families of the Flight 592 victims were outraged that ValuJet/AirTran was not prosecuted, given ValuJet's poor safety record. ValuJet had a higher accident rate than the 10 largest airlines, leading the FAA to take the unprecedented step of barring it from buying more planes or adding more cities without permission. The agency had seriously considered grounding the airline. The victims' families also point to statements made by ValuJet officials immediately after the crash that appeared to indicate ValuJet knew the generators were on the plane, and in fact had ordered them returned to Atlanta rather than properly disposed.[1]

[edit] Everglades Memorial

A memorial to the victims located in the Everglades was dedicated in 1999 on the third anniversary of the accident. The memorial, consisting of 110 concrete pillars, is located just north of Tamiami Trail about 11 miles west of Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade County and points to the location of the actual crash site eight miles to the north.

Within days of the crash of Flight 592, the song "Deep Down In the Everglades" was written by Rod MacDonald and performed in a small workshop at the Florida Folk Festival. The emcee, Dale Crider, was so moved that he invited MacDonald to sing it with him that evening on the main stage. The song was released on MacDonald’s 1999 CD “Into the Blue” (Gadfly Records/US, Brambus Records/Switzerland). Read lyrics