Just after 2:00pm on Saturday, May 11
1996, Valujet
flight 592 lifted off Miami
International's runway 27 left bound for
Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport,
the company's hub. On the DC-9's flight
deck that afternoon was Captain Candalyn
Kubeck and First Officer Richard Hazen.
Impact Crater of 592
Carrying
three other crew members and 105
passengers, flight 592, callsign Critter,
climbed northwest bound over the Florida
Everglades. About six minutes after
departure, the crew noticed some sort of
electrical anomaly and the CVR recorded
Captain Kubeck saying "we're losing
everything", indicating a possible loss of
electrical power on the flight deck. Just
after this, shouts of "fire" were heard on
the CVR. First Officer Hazen immediately
told Miami departure that 592 needed to
return to Miami. At this time, 592, was
about 100 miles out of Miami and climbing
to 16,000ft. Miami gave 592 vectors back
to the southeast and a descent to 5,000ft.
The senior flight attendant came forward
to the flight deck to tell the crew that
there was fire in the cabin and that
oxygen needed to be provided. Hazen
continued to query Miami for assistance
until the aircraft plunged into the
Everglades 12 miles north of the airport,
about nine minutes after takeoff.
Rescue
crews dispatched to the area had to use
airboats to reach the crash site. Rescuers
were able to locate very little of the
aircraft and no human remains in the large
crater made by the impact. Eyewitnesses
reported seeing the aircraft in a very
unusual attitude shortly before impact.
Rescuers were forced to bring in special
equipment to protect them from jet fuel
while searching the crater. Though the
search continued for nearly a month, no
survivors were ever found and to date,
only 75% of the aircraft and the remains
of only 37 passengers have been located.
Fortunately, the CVR and FDR were found.
Due to
the lack of physical evidence recovered
from the crash site, investigators
initially had to rely on the CVR for clues
to the reason behind the crash. It was
clear that there was some sort of fire
onboard the aircraft during the flight,
though it was impossible to determine the
extent. It was obvious that the flight
crew was not able to maintain control of
the aircraft, which could have been the
result of either blindness caused by smoke
in the cockpit or fire disabling the
aircraft. In the course of the recovery
efforts, crews were able to locate several
oxygen canisters which were carried on
board in the forward cargo hold. These
canisters were being transported to
Valujet's Atlanta base and were labelled
as empty. Investigators were able to
determine that the canisters were in fact
not empty and the safety rings were not in
place. Tests have shown that these
canisters can ignite intense fires very
rapidly if damaged. Recovery of the
forward cargo section of the aircraft
confirmed that an intense fire had broken
out in that section and burned up into the
cabin. Investigators could not confirm
whether the fire was started on the ground
or in the air because there were no fire
detectors installed in the cargo area. It
is now thought that the fire indeed burned
through the control linkages, rendering
the aircraft uncontrollable from the
flight deck.
