US firm sued on Florida air crash seeks Shannon files

A US aircraft maintenance company being sued over an air disaster in Florida which cost 110 lives is seeking evidence from the records custodian of Shannon Aerospace about the Irish company's handling of time-expired oxygen generators from a particular aircraft.

Shannon Aerospace is not involved in the US litigation, it was stressed at the High Court yesterday.

Shannon has applied to the court to overturn an order directing its records custodian to give evidence here, under the Foreign Tribunals Evidence Act, in the context of the US litigation.

The action by relatives of the 110 dead is against a US carrier, ValuJet Airlines, and other defendants, including SabreTech Incorporated, a US maintenance company, over the DC9 craft, Flight 592, which crashed in the Florida Everglades on May 11th, 1996, killing all on board.

In the US proceedings, it is claimed that when other ValuJet aircraft were being serviced by SabreTech, the service crew found oxygen generators (those connected to oxygen masks) had expired and removed these. It is claimed these expired generators were later illegally packed into boxes by ValuJet personnel and put aboard Flight 592.

Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for Shannon, told Mr Justice McCracken yesterday it is claimed in the US action that the expired generators had ignited, causing a fire which resulted in the Flight 592 crash.

On February 1st SabreTech secured an Irish High Court order that the records custodian of Shannon appear for examination. Sabretech claims the evidence of Mr Raymond Kazmaieczak, records custodian of Shannon Aerospace, is crucial because it would "educate" the parties regarding how Shannon replaced and removed oxygen generators.

In an affidavit, Mr Matthew Wales, a solicitor acting for SabreTech, said Shannon was contracted by ValuJet to replace oxygen generators. He said a ValuJet employee who had oversight responsibilities for three ValuJet aircraft at a SabreTech facility was the same person who had responsibility for a particular aircraft at Shannon (not the aircraft which crashed or the aircraft from which the time-expired generators were removed) for which SabreTech was requesting records.

Mr Wales said that same employee has given testimony which accuses SabreTech employees of improperly performing the functions associated with the replacement and disposal of oxygen generators.

In his affidavit, Mr Kazmaieczak said Shannon carried out an overhaul of ValuJet's aircraft, N801VV, from December 9th, 1995, to March 9th, 1996. This was not the aircraft involved in the Florida crash. He did not accept that any evidence relating to the N801VV craft could be relevant to any issues concerning the crashed aircraft.

He said SabreTech was, at best, carrying out a trawl to see if Shannon had any documents which might be useful to it. The request for documentation was oppressive and would involve an enormous amount of time and effort.

Mr Paul Sreenan SC, for SabreTech, said this was a request from the US courts to the High Court to assist in the taking of evidence. His client would undertake the inquiry would be confined to the treatment of time-expired oxygen generators removed at Shannon Aerospace from a particular ValuJet aircraft. There was no allegation against Shannon. The hearing resumes on Tuesday.