OVER the past few years my wife and I have made a number of flights aboard ValuJet Airlines, a low fare carrier, to and from South Florida. A ValuJet DC-9 crashed last Saturday in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 aboard.
ValuJet attendants seemed more friendly, enthusiastic and informal than their counterparts on regular airlines. Fares were cheaper too, with one discount price, for "reservations", not tickets, and no refunds. You lined up early for a seat - first come, first served. The planes were old, but spotless.
Aboard, you were served free soft drinks and nothing else. You could bring your own sandwiches. Parents with children found ValuJet inviting, as did students and young people with knapsacks. Parents found it cheaper than driving the family car a couple of thousand miles, sleeping overnight at expensive motels.
After Saturday's crash in the Everglades, Valujet's patrons may wonder if "cheaper is better" in air travel. More than 100 people died when the fateful DC-7 plunged into the swamp.
Now, the public debate on the cause of the tragedy is growing. ValuJet may not survive it. Two engines, two tyres, parts of the fuselage and landing gear have been recovered from the swamps.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other federal agencies are investigating the crash. The inspector general of the US Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, a pilot, told a television interviewer she refuses to travel on ValuJet planes because they are not safe.
The flight data recorder, or black box, was recovered when an investigator literally stepped on it in the Everglades, home to crocodiles and snakes. Minutes before the crash, the crew reported smoke in the cockpit and passenger cabin, raising the possibility of sabotage. That is now being discounted.
The plane might have been carrying hazardous combustible material. The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking "to determine whether there was a shipment of the hazardous material on Flight 592 which would be a violation of federal law. The investigation could involve the carrier, the shipper, an individual or any other party."
ValuJet was not authorised to transport hazardous material. The airline denies any such material was aboard. There were 50 to 60 empty oxygen canisters on the plane, however, "prepared for shipment by an employee of one of the repair facilities used by ValuJet in the Miami area", according to the Washington Post.
The oxygen canisters were being returned because they were too old for use. The employee labelled them "oxygen canisters - empty", which was probably "an honest mistake".
Investigators have recovered enough wreckage "to indicate smoke and heat from the ceiling above the forward lavatory down the wall behind the pilots to beneath the cockpit floor," the Post adds. "But they still do not know whether it was caused by electrical problems, the heat producing canisters, a combination of them, or something else."
The canisters, or "oxygen generators" which are for the use of passengers in an emergency, appear to hold the key to the crash.
The FAA has now assigned inspectors to fly on each ValuJet plane at least weekly to check whether crews are following regulations and to ensure all reports of mechanical problems have been corrected.