The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.26           July 1, 1996 
 
 
ValueJet forced to close over safety  

BY JANET POST

MIAMI - ValuJet was forced to "voluntarily" ground its fleet June 17. David Hinson of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the airline would not reopen "until such time as it demonstrates appropriate corrective action" for "serious deficiencies" in its maintenance program. The action came more than a month after ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board. The families of six of the victims had filed a complaint with the FAA requesting that the airline be grounded for violating maintenance regulations.

Hinson said the problems at the company include failing to establish the airworthiness of some of its aircraft; system-wide deficiencies in the airline's maintenance program; multiple shortcomings in the quality assurance of ValuJet's contractors; and lack of engineering capability.

Hinson and Transportation Secretary Federico Peņa had repeatedly defended ValuJet's safety record in the days after the crash. Although transportation officials say they thought ValuJet was safe, the June 11 Miami Herald quoted from a draft report on an FAA inspection of the airline that came out five days before the crash.

The report pointed to serious maintenance problems including one instance where a mechanic, lacking a repair manual and required tool, removed an engine part with a chisel and hammer. The chisel damaged the engine seal, allowing oil to drain out and the engine to shut down in flight. An FAA inspector witnessed the repair.

The report also noted many instances of the 30 inspected planes having missing rivets, leaking fuel, and loose screws, hinges, and seats. Some 15 flight attendant seats were broken or had loose parts.

The inspection of the airline came after a number of incidents that included an engine fire that destroyed a plane in Atlanta and seriously injured a flight attendant, and jets sliding off the runways in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.

ValuJet hired its own team of inspectors following the Florida crash that, according to Aviation Week, "found no safety problems." The team is headed by retired Air Force Gen. James Davis, who said they "found nothing to believe that this airline is unsafe - and I'll stand by that."

Following the June 17 shutdown, the Miami Herald wrote: "Documents uncovered by the media in recent weeks have painted a picture of a carrier operating with crews inadequately trained; aircraft that routinely flew with broken, malfunctioning or inoperative parts, including leaking fuel tanks, frayed wiring and passenger cabin communications that didn't work; and repairs on planes that were carried out without any apparent regard to approved procedures, and repairs reported as completed when they hadn't been."

In Miami June 10, the crash recovery project in the Everglades was called off with about 75 percent of the debris found. Parts showing fire damage include a melted aluminum frame from a passenger seat (aluminum melts at 1,220 degrees Fahrenheit) and fire-damaged beams from the cabin floor. The scenario of fire in the cabin has highlighted a number of unsafe conditions at all airlines, knowingly accepted by both the companies and government regulators. These include no fire detectors in many of the cargo holds and no flame-retardant cabin materials in planes built before 1990.

Smaller passenger planes such as DC-9's and 737's are not required to have either fire detectors or extinguishers in the cargo area. The FAA has ignored recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to install these.

On May 31 the NTSB recommended that oxygen generators should not be transported in cargo holds that lack fire detectors. The agency temporarily banned on May 23 all passenger planes from carrying any generators until the end of this year. The devices use a chemical reaction to produce oxygen for the masks located in the cabins of planes. The chemical reaction creates heat up to 500 degrees.

ValuJet Flight 592 was reported to have 144 oxygen generating canisters, 119 of them with no safety caps, which were packaged loosely in boxes and loaded in the cargo hold.

ValuJet tried to blame SabreTech, one of 56 contractors working for the airline, for the disaster. SabreTech says it was returning the parts to the airline and ValuJet is responsible for what it loads onto its aircraft.

Federal authorities including the FBI, announced June 13 they would investigate "whether crimes were committed in the crash of a ValuJet plane that was carrying an illegal cargo of hazardous oxygen canisters," reported the June 14 Miami Herald. Preliminary targets of the investigation are ValuJet and SabreTech.

ValuJet responded to the announcement in a statement reading, "It is misleading and incorrect to refer to ValuJet as the target of the investigations since its focus is broad and includes all of the people, companies and circumstances surrounding the accident." The investigation and report on the crash by the government will include a public hearing to be tentatively held in Miami in the fall.

According to the June 18 USA Today, ValuJet shareholders filed a lawsuit May 30 "saying its top executives made false statements about ValuJet's safety record." The airline cut its flights in half from 320 to 160 on June 2. Even with that, many planes have flown half empty.

With the shutdown, ValuJet announced it may lay off up to 75 percent of its workforce. Fifty of ValuJet's 600 flight attendants had already quit since the crash. The Association of Flight Attendants has said that some ValuJet flight attendants earn only $12,000 a year, are not guaranteed raises and have no aid sick leave or vacation.

Janet Post is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 368 at United Airlines in Miami and a Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Congress.  
 
 
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