Today in History

May 11, 1996

ValuJet Flight 592

On May 11, 1996, technicians for the SabreTech corporation loaded cases of oxygen canisters aboard low cost carrier ValuJet's flight 592 from Miami to Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. The canisters were mistakenly thought to be empty, but loading them into the cargo hold was in contravention of FAA regulations which forbid the transport of hazardous materials in the cargo hold of a commercial flight. During taxi and takeoff, it is theorized one of the canisters was activated by a sudden jolt, causing temperatures in the hold to raise to some 500 degrees. Cries of "fire" were heard via pilot transmissions to the Miami airport traffic control only minutes into the flight, which disappeared from radar over the Everglades. The flight hit the ground at an estimated 500 miles an hour in a deep water swamp over a quarter mile from the nearest road. Very little of the plane was left intact and the crew and 105 passengers aboard were all killed. The speed with which the craft impacted the ground and the inaccessible location made recovery efforts very difficult. Criminal charges were later filed against Sabretech an the FAA issued standards requiring fire detection and suppression equipment in the holds of all commercial flights. ValueJet never fully recovered from the adverse publicity surrounding the flight and a short time later merged with AirTran Airways.

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