There was another tragedy in Miami after Eastern Flight 401. What happened with ValuJet
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The crash of Eastern Flight 401
An Eastern Airlines jet heading from New York to Miami crashed in the Everglades 50 years ago. Now, survivors are planning the first memorial marker.
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There was another tragedy in Miami after Eastern Flight 401. What happened with ValuJet
Until May 11, 1996, Eastern Flight 401 was the deadliest aviation disaster in South Florida history. That was the day ValuJet Flight 592 nosedived into the swamp, 23 years after the Eastern plane crashed nearby.
Both flights ended up in the Everglades, killed hundreds and were the result of fatal mistakes.
ValuJet Flight 592 left no survivors when it plunged minutes after taking off from Miami International Airport. The 110 people on board the DC-9 were headed for Atlanta.
READ MORE: The day a plane with 110 people disappeared into the Everglades
The chain of events that preceded the ValuJet crash shared similarities with Eastern Flight 401. The crew overlooked fatal mistakes.
In the Eastern crash, the crew switched off autopilot while they reacted to a warning light. In the ValuJet crash, the airline maintenance crew failed to properly store hazardous materials.
ValuJet Flight 592 plummeted after an onboard fire, which was ignited because of 144 volatile oxygen-generating canisters. The canisters were packed inside the cargo area of the plane.
But the blame was at every level.
Maintenance firm SabreTech’s employees didn’t properly prepare or package the oxygen generators. ValuJet didn’t properly supervise its maintenance team. The Federal Aviation Administration didn’t properly regulate start-up airlines such as ValuJet, or require smoke detection and suppression systems in DC-9 cargo compartments.
SabreTech and ValuJet also failed to place $9 safety caps on the canisters to stop them from catching fire — a simple measure that could have prevented the tragedy.
The warning signs were there before the tragedy.
In January 1996, the FAA found alarming safety defects and wanted to ground the airline. Top management suppressed the findings, and the airline kept flying.
The crash sealed the fate of the low-budget ValuJet, which ceased operations a year later.
In 2021, a memorial marker was installed in the Everglades to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the crash.
Now, Eastern Flight 401 will finally get one, too.
This story was originally published December 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
