ValuJet 592 Crash

[Randy Daytona]

The Smithsonian Channel has a fascinating show called "Air Disasters" Last episode discussed ValuJet 592 which crashed in the Everglades. There was a fatal mistake in oxygen canisters in the cargo hold: originally labelled as expired, they somehow were mislabeled as empty. FAA tested these 144 expired canisters as originally packed in their special fire test chamber. When ignited, the temperature went off the recordable scale (3000+ degrees) and almost destroyed the FAA chamber. Going back to the flight data recorder, it appeared it took 3 minutes, 42 seconds from the time of ignition to the crash.

Be very cautious when dealing with oxygen - and don't mess around with fire.

 

[jmcquate]

Remember when it happened (DC-9?), the FAA figured it out pretty quickly, but as I recall some high up heads rolled. ValueJet is AirTran now.

 

[jollygreen07]

ValueJet is AirTran now.

Which is now Southwest (or absorbed by them, anyways).

 

[wlawr005]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

You would've thought they'd learned by now. I enjoy Air Disasters, but I wouldn't exactly call it "fascinating"

 

[Randy Daytona]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_disaster

You would've thought they'd learned by now. I enjoy Air Disasters, but I wouldn't exactly call it "fascinating"

Last week was the story of the rudder reversals that crashed both a United 737 and a USAir 737. Forgot the airline where the pilot got lucky and landed with a problem. Found out it was a combination that had not been tested - a supercooled valve that had very hot hydraulic fluid pumped through - caused the valve to either jam or reverse.

 

[MIDNJAC]

I thought Valujet, in some weird turn of ownership survival, has become Allegiant? No?

 

[Flash]

I thought Valujet, in some weird turn of ownership survival, has become Allegiant? No?

No, but the current CEO of Alliegant's parent company was CEO of ValuJet when they had their crash though. The way Allegiant is being handled now though I would not be surprised if they too had a crash unfortunately.

 

[Hopeful Hoya]

I thought Valujet, in some weird turn of ownership survival, has become Allegiant? No?

No, they merged with AirTran, and even though ValuJet was the nominal survivor, they retained AirTran's name and branding due to ValuJet's horrid reputation.

 

[MIDNJAC]

No, but the current CEO of Alliegant's parent company was CEO of ValuJet when they had their crash though. The way Allegiant is being handled now though I would not be surprised if they too had a crash unfortunately.

Yeah I guess this is what I was thinking of. Probably more telling than Allegiant actually being truly in the same company lineage.

 

[707guy]

Last week was the story of the rudder reversals that crashed both a United 737 and a USAir 737. Forgot the airline where the pilot got lucky and landed with a problem. Found out it was a combination that had not been tested - a supercooled valve that had very hot hydraulic fluid pumped through - caused the valve to either jam or reverse.

Read this book about that crash and the investigation. A lot of determination on the NTSB's part to find the cause. They really did a lot of testing on those rudder valves before they found that problem. Rather like the TWA 800 accident - a "ghost" of a problem that took certain circumstances to occur.

https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Flig...=flight 427&qid=1462657958&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1