On this day in 1996, Valuejet Flight 592, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashed into the Florida Everglades about 10 minutes after departing Miami due to a fire in the cargo compartment. The fire was caused by mislabeled and improperly stored chemical oxygen generators. All 110 people on board were killed.
ValuJet, a low-cost carrier, already had a poor safety record before the crash, and the incident brought widespread attention to the airline’s problems. Many of the airline’s planes were purchased in used condition from other airlines, and little training was provided to workers and contractors who were hired for maintenance and other services. ValuJet quickly developed a reputation for a lackluster safety record.
The aircraft had suffered a series of incidents in the two years before the crash, including two aborted takeoffs and eight emergency landings. Engine and pressurization errors were the primary issues in several of the incidents. In May 1995, the FAA issued a rewiring directive for all DC-9 cockpits because the wire bundles in the switch panel could cause “fire and uncontrolled smoke throughout the cockpit as a result of chafing and shorting.”
On the afternoon of May 11, 1996, Flight 592 left Gate G2 in Miami after a delay of one hour and four minutes because of electrical problems. In the flight deck were two experienced pilots, Captain Candi Kubeck (35) and First Officer Richard Hazen (52). There were 110 people on board: 105 passengers, mainly from Florida and Georgia, and a crew of two pilots and three flight attendants. At 2:04 p.m. EDT, the DC-9 departed from Runway 9L (now Runway 8R) and began a normal climb.
At 2:10 p.m., the passengers began to smell smoke. At the same time, the pilots heard a loud bang in their headsets and noticed that the plane was losing electrical power. The sag in electrical power and the banging sound were eventually determined to be the result of an explosion of a tire in the cargo hold.
Kubeck and Hazen immediately asked air traffic control to return to Miami and were given instructions for a return to the airport. Eyewitnesses watched as the plane banked sharply, rolled onto its side and nosedived into the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in the Everglades, a few miles west of Miami, at a speed in excess of 507 miles per hour. A group of sightseers in a small private plane also witnessed the crash and provided a nearly identical account, stating that Flight 592 seemed to “disappear” after hitting the swamp and that they could see nothing but scattered small debris, part of an engine and a large pool of jet fuel near the crash site.
The NTSB determined that just before takeoff, 144 expired chemical oxygen generators, each slightly larger than the size of a tennis-ball can, had been placed in the cargo compartment. Failure to cover the generators’ firing pins with the prescribed plastic caps made accidental activation much more likely. Investigators determined that one of the oxygen generators was likely triggered when the plane experienced a slight jolt while taxiing. As the aircraft taxied and took off, the generator began releasing heat that caused other canisters to activate. Each activation created more heat, which rapidly caused all of the generators to activate. The intense heat ignited a fire in the other materials in the cargo hold.
The fire began to destroy control cables that ran to the back of the aircraft, which explained why the pilots began losing control before the plane crashed. Recovery of the aircraft and victims was severely complicated by the location of the crash. The nearest road of any kind was more than a quarter of a mile (400 m) away from the crash scene, and the location of the crash itself was a deep-water marsh with a floor of solid limestone. The aircraft was destroyed on impact, with no large pieces of the fuselage remaining.
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, the company acquired AirTran Airways. Although ValuJet was the nominal survivor, the merged airline took the AirTran name. ValuJet executives believed that a new name was important to regain the trust of the flying public.
A ValuJet Airlines DC-9-32 at Washington – Dulles International (KIAD) May 1995. One year later, this plane crashed just west of Miami.
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Today is the birthday, in 1943, of Les Chadwick, who with Gerry And The Pacemakers had the 1963 UK No.1 single ‘How Do You Do It’ and the 1965 US No.6 single, ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey’. In common with The Beatles they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV5_LQArLa0
