I don't understand why ValueJet got dragged into this report as an unsafe airline. Didn't the investigation uncover that it wasn't pilot's error, nor it it was the airlines fault? Some contractors put O2 generators in the cargo bin that started the fire. Why didnt Miles OBrien mention the American Cali accident? Or American in Little Rock? Or American in Montego Bay recently? Or Continental and Delta landing on taxiways in EWR and ATL? Ahh, these are major airlines and they are safe unlike the rest.
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-06-26/news/mn-18681_1_valujet-crash
Agency Too Slow to Act on ValuJet, FAA Chief Says
June 26, 1996|ART PINE, TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration conceded Tuesday that his agency acted too slowly in cracking down on ValuJet's aircraft maintenance problems but he said that those shortcomings had nothing to do with the May 11 accident that killed 110 persons.
Testifying before a House Transportation subcommittee, FAA Administrator David Hinson said that, as late as a year ago when ValuJet began to grow rapidly, the agency "could have done a better job" in slowing that growth to a more manageable pace.
The FAA administrator, who has headed the agency since 1993, also told the panel that he intends to leave the post by the end of the year. He said he made that commitment to President Clinton when he was appointed.
His testimony was delivered in a jampacked hearing room. Other government regulators and agency officials also testified, assailing the FAA.
Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aircraft accidents, cited several cases of poor FAA supervision over the last decade and said the agency has repeatedly ignored NTSB warnings over the years about safety problems it should have resolved.
The agency's moves to tighten maintenance rules for carriers such as ValuJet since the May 11 crash shows that "we don't have a ValuJet problem here, we have an FAA problem," Hall said.
Hinson insisted during his testimony, however, that "there is no apparent relationship" between the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 into the Florida Everglades six weeks ago and "any issues of compliance at ValuJet."
As he has virtually since the ValuJet crash, Hinson attributed the accident to a fire most likely fueled by oxygen generators that were mislabeled and put on the plane without proper packing.
In other testimony, Mary F. Schiavo, inspector general of the Transportation Department, cited a list of instances in which the FAA had moved too slowly to correct a problem. She called ValuJet "a microcosm for the problems that we have uncovered at the FAA."
Schiavo also said the relationship between the airline and the FAA was the subject of a criminal investigation but she declined to provide details about the inquiry or who was conducting it. Reports of the investigation had surfaced before but had not been confirmed.
Republicans and Democrats on the panel sparred over reports that the White House had sought to influence the FAA decision on whether to ground ValuJet after the May crash. ValuJet agreed last week to cease operations temporarily after the FAA threatened to ground it formally.
Hinson and several FAA and Transportation Department aides testified, however, that they already had made their decision to ground the airline--or at least to force it to stop operating--before a June 17 White House meeting called to review the agency's action.
Hinson also drew fire from lawmakers in both parties for remarks that he and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena made just after the ValuJet crash assuring the public that the airline still was safe.
