Long Description:In Memory of those who perished on Valuejet Flight 592, May 11,
1996.
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A list of the flight manifest
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ValuJet Flight 592
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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ValuJet Flight 592 was a flight that crashed on May 11, 1996 en
route from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, United
States, to William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport in
Atlanta, Georgia. The crash was a large factor in undermining the
credibility of the low-cost carrier ValuJet Airlines, now known as
AirTran Airways.
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The 27-year-old DC-9 aircraft used on this route [1] was previously
owned by Delta Air Lines [2]. Flight 592 took off after a delay of
1 hour and 4 minutes at 2:04 pm 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. It 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 (800 km/h)
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 1/4 mi (402.34 m) 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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Notable passengers killed on the flight included:
-San Diego Chargers running back Rodney Culver
-Songwriter and musician Walter Hyatt
-Del-Marie Walker, murderer
-Former Miami Hurricanes football outside linebacker Robert
Woodus
COPS happened to be taping with the Miami-Dade Police Department
when the accident occurred. As a result, one of the episodes aired
in the 1996-97 season features some of the first 9-1-1 calls and
the initial investigations into the accident.
(visit link)
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A memorial to the victims located in the Everglades was dedicated
in 1999 on the third anniversary of the accident. The memorial,
consisting of 110 concrete pillars, is located just north of
Tamiami Trail about 11 miles west of Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade
County and points to the location of the actual crash site eight
miles to the north.
Within days of the crash of Flight 592, the song "Deep Down In
the Everglades" was written by Rod MacDonald and performed in a
small workshop at the Florida Folk Festival. The MC, Dale Crider,
invited MacDonald to sing it with him that evening on the main
stage. The song was released on MacDonald’s 1999 CD “Into the Blue”
(Gadfly Records/US, Brambus Records/Switzerland).
