DC93, en-route, north west of Miami USA, 1996

DC93, en-route, north west of Miami USA, 1996

Summary

On 11 May 1996, the crew of a ValuJet DC9-30 were unable to keep control of their aircraft after fire broke out. The origin of the fire was found to have been live chemical oxygen generators loaded contrary to regulations. The Investigation concluded that, whilst the root cause was poor practices at SabreTech (the maintenance contractor which handed over oxygen generators in an unsafe condition), the context for this was oversight failure at successive levels - Valujet over SabreTech and the FAA over Valujet. Failure of the FAA to require fire suppression in Class 'D' cargo holds was also cited.

Description

On 11 May 1996, the crew of a Douglas DC9-30 (N904VJ) being operated by ValuJet on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Miami to Atlanta reported fire on board during the climb out of Miami in day VMC. Although the climb was stopped approaching 11,000 feet and an air turnback was commenced, fire damage prevented completion of this plan and the aircraft crashed out of control in what was observed to have been a near-vertical attitude killing all 110 occupants.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) (NTSB). The wreckage was located and, eventually, a substantial part of it was recovered. The 11-parameter FDR and the CVR were also recovered and successfully downloaded.

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