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.
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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).