ValuJet Engines, Other Parts Recovered From Everglades

MIAMI — Large pieces of ValuJet Flight 592, including the two jet engines, were wrenched out of the Everglades muck Thursday by a “sky crane” helicopter as federal investigators continued to search for clues that could reveal the cause of the crash in which 110 people died.

Along with the engines, the heavy-lift Sikorsky helicopter hoisted two tires, at least one thrust reverser, chunks of the landing gear and large sections of wing and fuselage up onto the levee of a canal about 300 yards from the watery crash site. There they were to be decontaminated and then moved to a regional airport nearby.

“The tires and engines were very high priorities for us,” said National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Francis.

Recovery teams have not found any of the 50 to 60 oxygen generators that were reportedly aboard Flight 592 as cargo. The oxygen generators have figured prominently in speculation that they could have fueled or caused a fire aboard the doomed jetliner. The flight crew reported smoke in the cockpit minutes before the plane plunged into the Everglades on Saturday about 20 miles west of Miami International Airport.

ValuJet was not licensed to carry loaded oxygen generators, which are classified as hazardous materials when carried as cargo because they create oxygen through a chemical reaction and therefore need special handling, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

NTSB chief investigator Gregory A. Feith said there was “a discrepancy now between people and paperwork” on the oxygen generators, which are housed in 8-inch-long steel canisters. Some workers who may have handled the canisters may have thought them to be full, while others judged them to be empty, or used.

“We don’t know what level of experience these handlers had,” Feith said. “We have paperwork, but we don’t know if it pertains to these oxygen generators.”

Feith said efforts were continuing to determine “who shipped them, who actually handled them, packed them, who put them on the plane, and whether they were put on in accordance with hazardous material regulations.”

He confirmed that ValuJet is permitted to ship some potentially hazardous equipment that is for its own use.

In Atlanta, meanwhile, airline President Lewis Jordan provided reporters with a copy of a shipping manifest that indicated the canisters were empty. He went on to criticize what he called the “hysteria” and “misinformation” that he said threaten the survival of his airline.

During a press conference, Jordan criticized the press and “certain individuals” among federal investigators for spreading misleading statements and speculation that he said are causing travelers to shun ValuJet.

He specifically targeted speculation that illegally transported canisters aboard Flight 592 may have exploded in flight.

“The shipping ticket that we have indicates that we carried boxes of canisters that were identified specifically on the shipping bill as empty,” he said. “I have no way of knowing if that is accurate.”

Jordan also confirmed that about 25 ValuJet flights were canceled Wednesday, but said he did not have figures on the number of customers staying away because of safety concerns. “We have a lot of hysteria out in the industry right now, and there is a lot of confusion,” he said.

He attributed many of the cancellations to the stepped-up scrutiny of the airline by the FAA and by the company itself.

Thursday morning, for example, Jordan said, a flight was canceled in Atlanta because of vapor escaping into the cabin from the air conditioning. Even though airline workers could readily identify the cause of the vapor, the airline voluntarily canceled the flight after concerns were raised and moved passengers to another plane, he said.

“That’s the kind of thing that we’re being extremely careful about,” he added.

Jordan insisted, however, that “ValuJet is alive. ValuJet is well and financially strong.”

But nine days before the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration prepared a report that ranked ValuJet’s safety record as among the worst of 22 airlines studied. It shows that the ValuJet “accident” rate from 1990 to May 1996 stood at four accidents per 100,000 takeoffs, compared with an average for a group of 12 other small, low-cost carriers of 0.7 per 100,000 takeoffs.

Jordan refused comment on the FAA review, saying he had not seen it, and bristled when reporters repeatedly returned to the subject. He said he has spent the last few days dealing with human tragedy “and I ain’t bothering about statistics right now, OK?”

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it has temporarily suspended ValuJet as an approved carrier for on-duty military personnel because of “serious concerns” about its operations and maintenance.

The military’s Commercial Airlift Review Board suspended ValuJet after comparing its record of five accidents and 11 less serious “incidents” in the last two years, a Pentagon official said. “This rate was above the rate of other commercial carriers that operate MD-80s and DC-9s,” the jetliners flown by ValuJet, an official said.

“The most recent accident has given [the board] serious concerns about the adequacy of your operations and maintenance,” it said in a letter this week to ValuJet.

After an emotional memorial service on the levee Wednesday, many relatives and friends of Flight 592’s victims left for home Thursday, even as the grisly search for body parts continued in the saw-grass marsh. The search for remains is expected to last for at least another two weeks, officials said.