ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605130103
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MIAMI
SOURCE: Associated Press
note: lede
An airliner carrying 109 people crashed ``like a bullet into the ground'' Saturday in the Florida Everglades after the crew reported smoke in the cockpit and attempted to return to Miami International Airport.
There was no sign of survivors. Rescue efforts in the waist-high swamp were hampered by aviation fuel covering the crash site and concerns about alligators and snakes.
There were few recognizable parts of the DC-9 operated by ValuJet Airlines Inc., a young airline that has had several recent runway accidents and is being inspected by the FAA. Rescue crews found pieces of the plane measuring up to 6 feet.
Workers called off their search late Saturday night and planned to resume at daybreak today. Earlier, staff from the county medical examiner's office used infrared devices to look for bodies.
``I felt the most emotional when I saw a family album floating on the water and it was a mother and child,'' said Fire-Rescue Lt. Chris Aguirre, one of the first at the scene. He said he also saw baby clothes and a floating seat from the DC-9.
Aerial video shots showed what appeared to be debris spread over a region of the Everglades, an area of desolate, swampy grasslands stretching across much of southern Florida.
The area is thick with razor-toothed sawgrass and a variety of wildlife, including alligators. Popular with airboaters, froggers and fisherman, the swampy muck beneath the water may have acted as a pincushion, essentially swallowing the disabled DC-9 aircraft.
``That's why you don't see big parts of it,'' theorized Harold Johnson, vice president of the Everglades Coordinating Council and an airboater familiar with the area. ``It may have just swallowed it up. It's like quicksand. It doesn't have a bottom.''
Private pilot Daniel Muelhaupt was flying nearby when he saw the plane go down.
``The way it went into the ground, the way it crashed, it shot like a bullet into the ground,'' he told CNN. ``When it hit the ground, the water and dirt flew up. The wreckage was like if you take your garbage and just throw it on the ground, it looked like that.''
The jetliner, en route to Atlanta, was carrying 104 passengers and a crew of five, said airline president Lewis Jordan. The plane was at about 10,500 feet and about 100 miles northwest of Miami when the pilot reported the smoke. The jet had been in the air about eight minutes, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The pilot tried to fly back to Miami and went down about 20 miles northwest of the airport. The weather was sunny with a few clouds.
Flight 592 indicated at 2:15 p.m. that it would return to the airport, Jordan said at a news conference from the airline's Atlanta headquarters. Miami traffic control indicated that the plane went off radar at 2:25 p.m.
The jet was about 25 years old and was last inspected Tuesday, Jordan said.
``There's no concern that the engine is in any way suspected at this time,'' he said, noting there were no tapes available yet of the cockpit's conversation with the tower.
Muelhaupt said the plane was pointing down about 75 degrees and that he first thought it was a small plane doing maneuvers. He said he radioed authorities and circled until they reached the scene.
Chris Osceola, who was bass fishing nearby, also saw the plane dive into the water.
``I said, `It's gonna crash! It's gonna crash!' And then, boom!'' he told the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale.
President Clinton asked Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and FAA Administrator David Hinson to personally inspect the accident scene.
National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Robert Francis said late Saturday that the task of determining what caused the crash will be made more difficult because of the harsh terrain.
``This will not be the friendliest environment to do an accident investigation,'' Francis said at a news conference in Miami.
ValuJet quickly escorted relatives in Miami and Atlanta to private areas where they were told of the crash and offered counseling.
One woman sitting at a gate in Atlanta was waiting for her sister to arrive. She said she didn't know any details.
``I don't know. I'm trying to find out,'' she said, wiping tears from her face.
The crash of the ValuJet flight was reminiscent of an Eastern airlines jumbo jetliner that went down in the Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972, killing 101 of 176 people aboard.
The last major crash of a large plane was Sept. 8, 1994, when a USAir jetliner crashed on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 on board.
ValuJet, which began operations in October 1993, serves 31 cities in 19 states. The airline has experienced various problems.
In January, a ValuJet DC-9 got stuck in mud at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. The 101 passengers were bused to a terminal.
Also in January, another ValuJet DC-9 with 30 people on board slid into a snowbank after landing at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., closing the airport for nearly three hours. No one was hurt.
A ValuJet DC-9 also skidded off an icy runway at Dulles in January 1994, closing the airport for almost two hours.
The FAA launched about 375 inspections of ValuJet in February, examining ``literally every plane, every route,'' said Anthony J. Broderick, the agency's associate administrator for regulation and certification.
The bottom line: No significant safety deficiencies were found, he said.
Last summer, the FAA announced special inspections of aircraft engines that ValuJet purchased from a Turkish airline.
That investigation stemmed from a June 8, 1995, fire that destroyed a ValuJet DC-9 on a runway at Atlanta. One flight attendant was burned and minor injuries were reported as the 57 passengers and five crew were evacuated.
ValuJet's number for family information is (800)486-4346.
Knight-Ridder/Tribune contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. AP Experts say the ValuJet DC-9 crash site revealsby CNBlittle because the terrain is "like quicksand. It doesn't have a
bottom.'' color
2. AP An airboat owner waits as a command post is set up Saturday to
find bodies and crash survivors. Airboats and helicopters are the
only vehicles that move through the Everglades. (ran in NRV
edition) KEYWORDS: FATALITY