ValuJet 592

Minutes after takeoff, the pilots of the DC-9 reported smoke in the cabin and requested a return to Miami International Airport. The plane then dropped off radar and into the Everglades, killing all 110 people aboard. It was among the worst air disasters in Florida’s history. 

What investigators knew was that the plane had been destroyed in midair by a massive on-board fire. When investigators finished their job, they believed they had the cause. Canisters which generated oxygen for the plane’s emergency systems, apparently improperly stored and loaded aboard the plane, ignited and caused tires in the hold to blaze.

The improper handling of the canisters, which used a chemical reaction to produce oxygen and in the process, generated heat, was blamed on SabreTech, a ValuJet subcontractor. Something caused a canister to spark about 6 minutes into the flight, torching the tires upon which the box had been placed.  The cabin was filled with smoke, control cables were burned, and the doomed plane plunged to its death (CBS Miami, 2014).

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the accident resulted from a fire in the Class D cargo compartment initiated by the actuation of one or more oxygen canisters improperly carried as cargo, the failure of SabreTech to properly prepare, package, and identify chemical oxygen generators presenting them to ValuJet for transportation, and the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require smoke detection in Cass D cargo space.  Additional factors were found that ValuJet and its subcontractors failed to ensure knowledge that ValuJet had a no carry policy for hazardous cargo (NTSB, 1996).



Here is the National Geographic documentary on the crash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WoA2GgHntA

CBS Miami. (2014). Doomed ValuJet Flight 592 killed all, 16 years ago today. Retrieved from: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/05/11/doomed-valujet-flight-592-killed-all-16-years-ago-today/

NTSB. (1996) In-Flight Fire and Impact with Terrain Valujet Airlines Flight 592. Retrieved from: https://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/1997/AAR9706.pdf