ValuJet Flight 592 'Florida Everglades Plane Crash'

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• published: 16 Mar 2016
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Who was really at fault? ValuJet Flight 592 was a regularly scheduled flight from Miami International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. On May 11, 1996, the McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the Everglades approximately 11 minutes after taking off from Miami as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by improperly stored cargo, killing all 110 people on board. The airline already had a poor safety record before the crash, and the crash brought widespread attention to the airline's problems. Because of this incident, the airline was grounded for several months after the accident and was forced to acquire another brand (Air Tran) to continue to stay in business. On the afternoon of May 11, 1996, Flight 592 pushed back from gate G2 in Miami after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes due to mechanical problems.There were 105 passengers, mainly from Florida and Georgia, on board, as well as a crew of two pilots and three flight attendants, bringing the total number of people on board to 110. At 2:04 pm, 10 minutes before the disaster, the DC-9 took off from runway 9L (now runway 8R) and began a normal climb. At 2:10 pm, the passengers started to smell smoke. At the same time, the pilots heard a loud bang in their headphones and noticed the plane was losing electrical power. The spike in electrical power and the bang were eventually determined to be the result of a tire in the cargo hold exploding. Seconds later, a flight attendant entered the cockpit and informed the flight crew of a fire in the passenger cabin. Passengers' shouts of "fire, fire, fire" were recorded on the cockpit voice recorder when the cockpit door was opened. Though the ValuJet flight attendant manual stated that the cockpit door should not be opened when smoke or other harmful gases might be present in the cabin, the intercom was disabled and there was no other way to inform the pilots of what was happening. The flight data recorder indicated a progressive failure of the DC-9's electrical and flight control systems due to the spreading fire. Kubeck and Hazen immediately asked air traffic control for a return to Miami due to the increasing smoke in the cockpit and cabin, and were given instructions for a return to the airport. One minute later, Hazen requested the nearest available airport. Kubeck began to turn the plane left in preparation for the return to Miami. Flight 592 disappeared from radar at 2:13:42 pm. Eyewitnesses nearby 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 (816 km/h). Kubeck lost control of the plane less than 10 seconds before impact. Examination of debris suggested that the fire had burned through the floorboards in the cabin, resulting in structural failure and damage to cables underneath the instrument panels. The NTSB report on the accident stated that "the Safety Board cannot rule out the possibility that the flight crew was incapacitated by smoke or heat in the cockpit during the last 7 seconds of the flight. There were interruptions in the cockpit voice recorder on two occasions, one as long as 1 minute 12 seconds. The aircraft impacted the swamp at 14:13:40 Eastern Standard time, 31 minutes and 19 seconds into the flight. Kubeck, Hazen, the three flight attendants and all 105 passengers aboard were killed instantly. 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 mile (400 m) away from the crash scene, and the location of the crash itself was a deep-water swamp with a floor of solid limestone. The DC-9 was destroyed on impact, with no large pieces of the fuselage remaining. Sawgrass, alligators, and risk of bacterial infection from cuts plagued searchers involved in the recovery effort. Two witnesses fishing nearby testified according to the NTSB report: "...that they saw a low-flying airplane in a steep right bank. According to these witnesses, as the right bank angle increased, the nose of the airplane dropped and continued downward. The airplane struck the ground in a nearly vertical attitude". They reported seeing no external damage to the DC-9 or any sign of fire or smoke other than the engine exhaust. 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 impacting the swamp and they could see nothing but scattered small debris and part of an engine near the crash site.