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Trial Graphics FAA Investigation Valujet 592 Aviation Accident

“Fire in the Sky”
Extreme Evidence
Court TV

ValuJet Airlines, Flight 592
In-Flight Fire and Impact with Terrain

3D Animations: TMBA, Inc.
http://www.tmba.tv/trial-graphics/aviation-investigations/valujet-592/

ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff from Miami International Airport, killing all 110 passengers and crew members. Investigators were first inclined to believe that the plane was to blame for the crash. But a close examination of the wreckage uncovered that the plane had been carrying oxygen generators in its cargo hold – forbidden on passenger planes. Oxygen generators contain a mixture of sodium chlorate, barium peroxide and potassium perchlorate that can heat and ignite under specific conditions. A tape recording of the final minutes of the flight, with passengers screaming “Fire! Fire!” confirmed that a fire had brought the plane down. Now investigators needed to understand how the fire had ignited and spread and what oxygen generators were doing there in the first place.

TMBA created a series of 3D animations for the Tru TV series “Extreme Evidence based on final accident data from the FAA and NTSB reports. These animations conceptually illustrate how the failure of the chemical devices may have caused this accident.

TMBA is a New York City Animation Studio that provides 3D Animation, Broadcast Animation, Motion Graphics and vfx for the top cable and network television productions.

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ValuJet Flight 592 was a flight that crashed on May 11, 1996 en route from Miami International Airport to the Atlanta International Airport. The crash was a large factor in undermining the credibility of the low-cost carrier ValuJet Airlines, now known as AirTran Airways.

The 27-year-old DC-9 aircraft used on this route was previously owned by Delta Air Lines. Flight 592 pushed back from gate G2 in Miami after a delay of 1 hour and 4 minutes due to mechanical problems.

At 2:04 pm, the DC-9 took off from runway 9L and began a normal climb. However, at 2:10 p.m. the flight crew noted an electrical problem. Seconds later, a flight attendant entered the cockpit and advised the flight crew of the fire. Passengers’ shouts of “fire, fire, fire” were recorded on the plane’s cockpit voice recorder when the cockpit door was opened.

Though the ValuJet flight attendant manual stated that the cockpit door should not be opened when smoke or other harmful gases may be present in the cabin, the intercom was disabled, and there was no other way to inform the pilots of what was happening. By this time, the plane’s interior was completely on fire.

The crew immediately asked air traffic control for a return to Miami due to smoke in the cockpit and cabin. Captain Candi Kubeck and First Officer Richard Hazen were given instructions for a return to the airport. One minute later, the First Officer requested the nearest available airport.

Flight 592 disappeared from radar at 2:14 p.m. and crashed in Browns Farm Wildlife Management area in the Everglades, a few miles west of Miami, at speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour. Kubeck, Hazen, the three flight attendants, and all 105 passengers aboard were killed. Recovery of the aircraft and victims was made extremely difficult due to the location of the crash.

The nearest road of any kind was more than a quarter mile away from the crash scene, and the location of the crash itself was a deep-water swamp with a bedrock base. The DC-9 shattered on impact with the bedrock, leaving very few large portions of the plane intact. Sawgrass, alligators, and risk of bacterial infection from cuts plagued searchers involved in the recovery effort

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ValuJet was not authorized to carry the chemical devices that investigators suspect started a fire or an explosion that may have brought down one of the airline’s planes, with more than 100 people aboard, in the Everglades on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control said Wednesday.

Investigators say they still do not know why the plane crashed. They have assembled a strong circumstantial evidence that indicates that the chemical devices, called oxygen generators, were somehow triggered and so began generating heat and oxygen. If so, the generators may have ignited.

Gregg Kenyon, a spokesman for ValuJet, declined to comment on the reports the plane was carrying the oxygen generators. “I can say it is ValuJet policy that we do not accept hazardous materials for commercial carriage, but we are permitted by federal regulations to carry certain hazardous materials associated with the maintenance and operation of our fleet,” he said.

In the days since the crash, the airline’s officials have said that its safety record is good and that they are cooperating with the government’s investigation into the accident.

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said the DC-9 jetliner that crashed had carried cargo of 50 to 60 oxygen generators, devices about the size of a small fire extinguisher fire extinguisher that when activated combine two chemicals and give off oxygen, for use in passenger emergency masks. Like fire extinguishers, the generators have a shelf life; the shelf life of these had expired, so ValuJet, which owned them, was transporting them back to its base in Atlanta, the investigators said.

ValuJet’s lack of authorization to carry the generators was disclosed by the FAA on Wednesday in a statement that said the airline had not had the appropriate training to haul hazardous material.

“As the airline elected not to carry hazardous materials, it is neither authorized nor equipped to do so,” the statement said. “ValuJet’s FAA-approved training manuals require its staff to recognize the presence of hazardous materials so they can be refused.”

That ValuJet was not approved to carry hazardous materials was also mentioned in a Defense Department report in August. In that report, the Pentagon rejected ValuJet’s application to become a military contractor, describing a number of shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw.

Shortcomings may also be in the airline’s operation. The report said, for example, that the airline had incomplete and disorganized records and documentation for maintenance training, that it had no internal audit program and that supervisors were not adequately reviewing maintenance forms and other documents.

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Resources:

http://www.tmba.tv/trial-graphics/

http://www.tmba.tv/trial-graphics/aviation-investigations/valujet-592/

http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1997/AAR9706.htm

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/PLANE+CARRIED+UNAUTHORIZED+CARGO+:+FAA+SAYS+VALUJET+FORBIDDEN+TO…-a083932235

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592

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