Word: valujet
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Four months after the ValuJet plane went down, a Federal Express DC-10 was forced into an emergency landing at Newburgh, N.Y., because of fire in its cargo hold. The captain reported smoke at the same altitude as Swissair 111--33,000 ft.--and began to descend. Eighteen minutes later, the FedEx crew was sliding down ropes and chutes from the plane, which burned steadily for more than three hours after landing. The cause of the fire was never pinpointed, but investigators discovered such undeclared items as aerosol cans and plastic bottles containing acidic liquids, prompting the National Transportation Safety...
...terrorism. But not the terror of mechanical failure. And so the questions were asked. Was it a problem akin to what most probably destroyed TWA 800--a stray spark igniting gases in a fuel tank? Or was it some hazardous, poorly packed cargo like the kind that destroyed ValuJet Flight 592 over the Florida Everglades? Or was it something else, some yet unknown and insidious little technicality...
Then there is the ValuJet theory. On May 11, 1996, spare oxygen-generating canisters stowed as freight aboard ValuJet Flight 592 ignited and sent the DC-9 plunging into the Everglades. The generators had been mistakenly marked empty, and the crew never knew that the plane was carrying hazardous material. Could similar undeclared baggage have doomed Swissair 111? In 1990, air personnel discovered undeclared hazardous cargo--usually because it leaked or emitted a smell--on 63 occasions; by last year, that number had ballooned to 349. Shippers are still not required to disclose to air carriers the contents of their...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The National Transportation Safety Board stuck to its guns today, ruling that ValuJet Flight 592 which plunged into a Florida swamp was brought down by a fire ignited by loaded chemical oxygen generators. The NTSB was even-handed in aportioning blame, saying SabreTech, ValuJet and the FAA are all partially responsible for the disaster, which killed 105 passengers and five crew members last year. According to the report, SabreTech helped cause the accident by failing to properly package and identify the hazardous oxygen generators. ValuJet was slammed for improperly overseeing the maintenance contractor while the FAA was charged...
...inventor presented his findings to NTSB technical staffers last Friday. But the information was rejected ? even though it was backed up by Vernon Gross, a former NTSB board member who also believes the ValuJet crash was caused by an electrical fire. Werjefelt says the industry has lobbied against his recommendation to replace aging wires. "Replacing that wiring would cost airlines about as much as it would for them to buy new planes," says Werjefelt...