4:00

hours in the air. Third time

4:02

in two weeks an Allegiant airplane has

4:04

had to make an emergency landing. Then

4:06

in August the FAA says a maintenance

4:09

issue led a plane to prematurely lift

4:11

off the ground in Las Vegas. The

4:13

MD 80 was heading for the runway

4:15

at the Phoenix Messe Gateway Airport when

4:18

the captain smelled smoke. This

4:20

video shows moments after officials tell us

4:22

an engine caught fire as the plane

4:24

was getting ready to take off to

4:26

Fresno. This is the fifth incident with

4:28

an Allegiant flight since July. The

4:32

Kinzer termination was just the latest

4:34

incident in the deluge of recent

4:36

negative publicity for Allegiant Air. Over

4:39

the past 12 months beginning in 2014,

4:42

the Las Vegas based air

4:44

carrier made headlines for low

4:46

fuel warnings, cabin pressurization problems,

4:48

rapid descents, engine failures, faulty

4:50

brakes, landing gear malfunctions, hydraulic

4:52

leaks, electrical issues, missing components,

4:54

aborted takeoffs, and other problems

4:56

that would continue and amplify

4:58

as 2015 came to a

5:00

close. Allegiant

5:04

Air's streak of 60 straight quarters of profits

5:06

was in jeopardy. After emerging

5:08

from bankruptcy in the early 2000s,

5:10

the budget airline had become one

5:12

of the most profitable airlines in

5:14

the United States by serving underserved

5:16

smaller markets such as Fresno, California,

5:18

Shreveport, Louisiana, and Allentown,

5:21

Pennsylvania. Allegiant's unbundling approach

5:23

to air transportation kept fares low,

5:26

but revenues were patted by charging additional

5:28

fees for even the most minor conveniences.

5:31

We are very sensitive to all the

5:34

needs you may have, but we're also

5:36

able to mine all the profit," the

5:38

company's CEO, Maury Gallagher Jr., told Bloomberg.

5:41

Gallagher had also once bragged about saving

5:43

money by having executives build their own

5:46

office furniture. However,

5:48

those examples were non-complementary peanuts compared

5:51

to where Allegiant most substantially cut

5:53

costs. Allegiant relied

5:55

heavily on older airplanes purchased

5:57

secondhand from foreign airlines. Most

6:00

notably, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80,

6:02

a gas-guzzling jet already retired

6:04

by most carriers by the time its

6:07

production ended in 1999. In

6:11

2015, buying a new state-of-the-art

6:13

Airbus A320 could exceed $60

6:16

million. The cost of

6:18

a 30-year-old MD-80, on the other hand,

6:20

was about $4 million,

6:23

barely worth its weight in parts. The

6:26

average age of Allegiance fleet of aircraft was

6:28

27 years old. That's

6:30

not a problem in and of itself

6:33

as long as the machines were meticulously

6:35

maintained, but according to Allegiance's own pilots

6:37

and mechanics, that hadn't been the case.

6:40

The company's maintenance was performed

6:43

by contractors and subcontractors who

6:45

were reportedly overworked, underpaid, and

6:47

under-trained. Minor mechanical

6:49

problems were allowed to linger until they

6:51

became major malfunctions. Pilots

6:54

even claimed they were discouraged from

6:56

declaring emergencies or reporting problems because

6:58

it was in Allegiance's business interests

7:00

to keep the planes in the

7:02

air to maximize profit. Pilots have

7:04

accused Allegiance of putting profits over

7:07

passenger safety, even stating quote, lives

7:09

are at risk and the airline

7:11

is heading down a dangerous path.

7:14

In 2016, the Tampa Bay Times

7:16

spent months analyzing federal aviation records

7:19

to determine just how dangerous of

7:21

an operation Allegiant Air really was.

7:24

The newspaper published its investigative findings in November

7:26

of that year. The data

7:28

was alarming. The Times found that, in

7:30

2015 alone, 42 of Allegiance's 86 airplanes were forced to

7:35

make unexpected landings at least 77 times

7:38

due to serious mechanical failures,

7:40

many times due to repeated failures of

7:42

the same systems. The newspaper

7:45

calculated that Allegiance Air was four times

7:47

as likely to fail during a flight

7:49

than other major U.S. airlines. CBS's

7:53

60 Minutes picked up where the Tampa

7:55

Bay Times investigation left off by conducting

7:57

its own review of federal aviation safety

7:59

records. records, and a segment that aired in

8:01

April 2018, reporter Steve

8:04

Croft detailed how Allegiant Air had

8:06

experienced another 100 serious

8:08

mechanical issues in 2016 and 2017, three and a

8:10

half times

8:13

the rate of American Airlines' United

8:15

Delta Jet Blue and even Spirit.

8:18

You're a former member of the NTSB. Would

8:20

you fly on an Allegiant plane? I

8:22

have encouraged my family, my friends, and

8:24

myself not to fly on Allegiant. Perhaps

8:27

most concerning, both the Tampa

8:29

Bay Times and 60 Minutes

8:32

revealed that despite recommendations by

8:34

its own inspectors, the Federal

8:36

Aviation Administration, the agency responsible

8:38

for ensuring airline safety, had

8:40

repeatedly declined to take any

8:42

enforcement action against Allegiant Air.

8:45

This passive approach had to do with

8:47

a policy change, according to CBS News,

8:49

quote, "...over the last three years, the

8:51

FAA has switched its priorities from actively

8:54

enforcing safety rules with fines, warning letters,

8:56

and sanctions, which become part of the

8:58

public record, to working quietly with airlines

9:00

behind the scenes to fix the problems.

9:03

It may well be what's allowed Allegiant to

9:05

fly under the radar." Allegiant

9:08

discounted that notion. CEO Marty

9:10

Gallagher had referred to its 77 mechanical

9:13

failures in 2015 as

9:15

simply a, quote, Allegiant

9:18

says, quote, Although

9:25

they downplayed concerns about the airline's

9:27

safety record, Allegiant executives did admit

9:29

that operations had been, quote, "...stressed

9:31

as a result of the company's

9:33

rapid growth." When Gallagher

9:35

took over as CEO in 2001, Allegiant

9:38

serviced only a handful of cities. Fifteen

9:41

years later, they had expanded to over 100.

9:45

Allegiant also announced that it was in

9:47

the process of modernizing its fleet. The

9:50

recent bad press probably expedited those efforts.

9:52

The airline's last MD-80 took its final

9:55

flight in November 2018. It

9:58

was delayed by 30 minutes. ride.

14:28

The first value jet took flight in

14:30

October 1993. It

14:33

marked the beginning of a new era in

14:35

transportation. Airfare made affordable

14:37

for the average Joe. The

14:40

cabin door was now open to everybody.

14:43

Low cost air carriers were nothing new. Southwest

14:46

Airlines popularized the business model in the

14:48

early 70s but value jet's vision of

14:51

a no frills airline took the low

14:53

cost concept even further. Average

14:56

received only the seat they paid for and

14:58

a complimentary breath mint and he

15:00

perked beyond that came with a fee. The

15:03

key to the Atlanta based airline

15:05

success was to maintain the lowest

15:07

operating costs possible. This

15:09

meant relying on older second hand

15:12

planes and outsourcing the maintenance. Value

15:15

jet did not own repair hangers or keep

15:17

inventories of spare parts. Lewis

15:19

Jordan, the president and founder of the company

15:21

even bragged about using a $100 he

15:24

bought at Home Depot. Value

15:31

jet pilots, flight attendants and mechanics were

15:33

also paid the lowest wages in the

15:36

industry. Mass layoffs in the

15:38

90s had created a large labor pool that was

15:40

willing to work for cheap. The

15:42

company also forced its employees to pay for

15:44

their own training and uniforms, offered no sick

15:46

leave and only paid its pilots for flights

15:49

completed. The majority

15:51

of value jet's workforce consisted

15:53

of contractors, subcontractors and temporary

15:55

employees also known as Jordan's

15:57

temps, named for the value jet president

15:59

who was ex-wife's employment agencies supplied

16:01

the fresh meat. The hours

16:04

were long, the probationary periods even

16:06

longer. But that's the kind

16:08

of exploitation required to offer $39 airfare

16:11

to Tallahassee. Since

16:14

deregulation, we've had numerous carriers and Value Jet

16:16

is one of them. It comes into existence

16:18

trying to squeeze the eagle off the dollar.

16:21

And in doing so, they can only afford

16:23

to operate at or close to the legal

16:25

minimums. In a

16:28

few short years, Value Jet's blue

16:30

and yellow branding was widely recognizable.

16:32

The company's marketing featured a cute

16:35

little cartoon airplane mascot named

16:37

The Critter. The same

16:39

name also served as the Value Jet

16:41

air traffic flight identifier. The

16:43

strategy proved successful. Value Jet

16:46

went from operating 8 flights a day

16:48

to 4 cities using 2 planes, to

16:50

124 flights a day to

16:52

17 cities using 51 planes in

16:54

the span of only 14 months. The

16:57

company's stock price almost tripled in the same

16:59

amount of time. And there were no

17:01

signs of slowing down. Value

17:03

Jet, which is headquartered in Atlanta, has

17:05

grown rapidly since it was founded 3

17:07

years ago. It now has 3,500 employees.

17:11

Its 51 planes fly to 31 cities in

17:13

the US with plans for further growth later

17:15

this year. That kind of growth,

17:17

along with its discount fares, some as low as

17:19

$39, has

17:21

at times raised questions within the industry. Of

17:25

course, there were some growing pains, but that

17:27

was to be expected. A few

17:29

mishaps here and there, but nothing major, thankfully.

17:32

Value Jet strived to make improvements every

17:34

day. Besides, the company

17:36

doesn't become one of the most profitable airlines

17:38

in the United States almost overnight without

17:41

some bumps in the sky. Flying

17:48

a plane is all Candel and Kubek ever wanted to

17:50

do. It was in her blood. Her

17:52

grandfather was a pilot in World War I.

17:55

Her uncles were pilots in Vietnam. Candy

17:57

actually received her license to fly before she could

17:59

leave. legally drive and she had been flying

18:01

ever since, accumulating almost 9,000 hours in the

18:04

sky, but it hadn't been

18:07

easy, especially commercially, even though she

18:09

was wholly qualified. The

18:11

only way Candy Kubek could get her foot

18:13

in the door as a female pilot was

18:16

to cross the Eastern Airlines picket line in

18:18

1989. Consequently, Candy was harassed,

18:20

bullied, threatened, and ultimately blacklisted from

18:22

flying for any of the major

18:24

airlines. That's how she found herself

18:26

working for non-unionized value jet for

18:28

$43,000 a year. But

18:32

the salary was mostly irrelevant. Candy

18:35

Kubek honestly just loved the job, and she

18:37

loved the people she worked with, and they

18:39

loved her back. When Captain Kubek

18:41

arrived for duty on Saturday, May 11, 1996,

18:45

she found her cockpit that had been decorated for her

18:48

birthday. Candy had just turned 35 years

18:50

old the day before. What

18:52

better way to celebrate than to

18:55

pilot an old McDonnell Douglas DC-9

18:57

from Miami to Atlanta. Value

18:59

Jet had acquired the 27-year-old airplane in time

19:02

for its opening day in 1993. It

19:04

was originally owned by Delta Airlines, but

19:07

they'd retired it a year earlier. The

19:09

DC-9 that Candy Kubek would be flying that

19:12

afternoon had been in service since 1969. Joining

19:17

Captain Kubek on the routine journey was

19:19

her first officer, 52-year-old Richard Hazen who

19:21

had joined Value Jet after 20 years

19:23

in the Air Force, and

19:25

three Dallas-Fort Worth-based flight attendants,

19:28

Lori Cushing, Jennifer Stearns, and

19:30

Mandy Summers. The plane's 105 passengers

19:33

consisted of people from all walks

19:35

of life. There was

19:37

Dan and Lisa Jarvis, high school

19:39

sweethearts who had grown apart and

19:42

then reconnected after their respective divorces.

19:44

They were returning home to North Carolina from

19:47

a Caribbean cruise. The McNitt

19:49

family was also returning from a

19:51

dream vacation. Neil, Judy, and

19:53

their three young daughters needed to be

19:55

home in suburban Atlanta in time for

19:57

a planned family reunion on Mother's Day.

20:00

Kilm Reynolds, a junior in college, had spent

20:02

a week scuba diving in the Florida Keys

20:04

with her mother. Lisa Pearson was

20:07

going back to Kansas City after cashing in her

20:09

prize for a round trip to Florida that she

20:11

had won in a beauty pageant. Rodney

20:13

Culver, a running back for the San

20:15

Diego Chargers, was also on board enjoying

20:17

the off-season with his wife Karen. And

20:20

then there was Dale Marie Walker, returning to

20:22

the scene of the crime where she had

20:24

brutally murdered a friend in an argument over

20:26

money just weeks earlier. You never

20:29

know who you're sitting next to. The

20:32

estimated flight time of value jet

20:34

Flight 592 from Miami International to

20:36

Heartsford Jackson in Atlanta was 1

20:38

hour and 32 minutes. The

20:41

departure was delayed an hour because the plane was

20:43

late getting in. At 2.03 pm,

20:46

Flight 592 was cleared for

20:49

takeoff. Captain Kubek guided

20:51

the DC-9 down the runway, throttled

20:53

up, lifted into the sky, and

20:55

ascended over the next several minutes

20:57

to 11,000 feet. At

21:08

2.10 pm, Captain Candy Kubek heard

21:10

a singular, brief thumping noise from

21:13

below. What was that? She

21:15

asked her co-pilot. I don't know,

21:17

Richard Hazen replied. We got

21:19

some electrical problem, Captain Kubek noticed

21:22

on her instrument panel. The

21:24

battery charger's kicking in, Hazen pointed out.

21:27

We're losing everything, Kubek said, somehow

21:30

maintaining a calmness in her voice.

21:33

We need to go back to Miami. Just

21:35

then, a flight attendant opened the cockpit

21:37

door. There's smoke in the cabin,

21:40

she told them, over the cries of fire

21:42

from the passengers behind her. 592 days

21:44

are near, return to Miami. Two-turn left heading 270

21:46

to send a maintain 7000. What kind of problem are you having? Smoke in the

21:48

cabin. The

22:00

air traffic controller immediately began to

22:02

reroute other planes in preparation for

22:04

Flight 592's emergency landing. Turn

22:07

left and descend, instructed Kubek and

22:09

Hazen. The pilots feared

22:11

southeast in silence, completely focused on

22:13

the task at hand. Again,

22:16

the flight attendant interrupts. We

22:18

need oxygen. We can't get oxygen back here.

22:21

The cabin was filling with a thick, toxic

22:23

smoke. Chaos unfolded. Only

22:26

on fire, you can hear a voice in the

22:29

background say, over the radio. At

22:32

2.11 pm, Richard Hazen radios

22:34

back to air traffic control. We

22:36

need the closest airport available, he says. Credit

22:40

592, the controller responds, sensing

22:42

the urgency in the co-pilot's

22:44

voice. Opalaka airport is

22:46

at about 12 o'clock. There

22:48

was no response. Flight

22:51

592 descended from 7,800 feet to 1,000 feet in 40

22:53

seconds. The

22:58

right wing dropped. The plane rolled over

23:00

and plummeted toward the Earth at 500

23:03

miles per hour at about a 75

23:05

degree angle, about 10 minutes after

23:07

takeoff, 15 miles northwest of the

23:10

Miami airport. Marco

23:12

around 35 second gravity HartACK.

23:16

Angry a

23:38

large jet aircraft with just crashed off here.

23:42

Large like airliner size.

23:47

Everglades Holiday Park along canal. Well,

23:49

67. I

23:51

have it. You need to get your choppers in the

23:53

air. I'm a pilot. I have a GPS. I'll give

23:55

you coordinates. Walton Little had just caught

23:57

the biggest bass of his life. About

24:00

eight and a half pounds, he told the media.

24:02

Quote, it would have been a nice memory, but

24:04

it won't be much of one now. Walton

24:07

was admiring the catch in his boat near

24:09

the canal in the Everglades Holiday Park at

24:11

2.15 p.m. on May 11th, 1996, when

24:15

he saw a large commercial airliner diving toward

24:17

the ground at a high rate of speed.

24:20

Mr. Little didn't see the impact because the

24:23

plane disappeared over the horizon about a mile

24:25

away, but he heard it, and he saw

24:27

the 200-foot-high mushroom cloud of mud and water

24:29

splash into the air. Mr.

24:31

Little, a pilot himself, had a GPS

24:34

with him and provided an emergency operator

24:36

with the coordinates of the crash. "'And

24:38

this is not a hoax,' the operator asked. "'This

24:41

is not a hoax, no.'" Scorched

24:43

earth and small pieces of debris, these

24:46

are the only visible signs of the

24:48

fatal crash of Flight 592. The

24:51

value jet DC-9 plummeted into

24:53

the alligator-infested swamps of the

24:55

Florida Everglades shortly after takeoff

24:58

from Miami International Airport. Out

25:01

of all the places on Earth where a plane could

25:03

crash, the Florida Everglades might be

25:05

one of the worst. The

25:07

inhospitable marsh is covered in three to five

25:09

feet of water. Below that

25:11

is another five feet of thick,

25:13

black peat moss muck and rotting

25:15

vegetation that can and will swallow

25:18

anything it touches. You

25:20

can hide 100 elephants in one of these

25:22

Everglades sinkholes, and nobody would even know it. A

25:25

wildlife expert at the University of Miami told

25:27

the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, "'Fortunately,

25:30

there were no concealed elephants "'to worry

25:32

about, just everything else. "'Alligators,

25:35

venomous snakes, violent vegetation.

25:38

"'Rescue workers familiar with the environment "'knew they

25:40

were in for a challenge.' "'But

25:43

how much of a challenge was unclear

25:45

initially? "'From dry land several hundred

25:47

yards away, "'there was very little evidence "'that

25:49

a crash had even occurred. "'First

25:51

responders would have to wait for helicopters "'and

25:53

airboats to get a closer look. "'Even

25:56

then, accessibility would be an issue.'"

25:59

The closest... Highway was five miles away. To

26:02

bring in heavy equipment, recovery teams considered

26:04

paving a road, constructing a bridge, and

26:06

building a dam around the crash site

26:08

to drain the swamp. All

26:10

of these ideas quickly proved impractical.

26:13

Instead, emergency personnel used a road near

26:15

an embankment 300 yards away.

26:18

Boats picked up dive teams wearing specialized suits

26:20

to protect them from the jet fuel in

26:22

the water. Sharpshooters tagged along,

26:24

as added protection from any creatures

26:27

lurking below. But even

26:29

atop the crash site, rescuers found

26:31

nothing. The 54

26:33

ton airplane had seemingly just disappeared.

26:37

There is no large wreckage, no wing

26:39

sections, no tail sections that can be

26:41

seen. It's our understanding there were 109

26:43

people on board. At this

26:46

point, there's no sign of survivors. No

26:49

fuselage, no wings, no bodies, just

26:51

small pieces of metal and plastic

26:53

scattered atop the water, along with

26:55

some personal effects belonging to the

26:57

passengers in crew of Flight 592.

27:01

Perses, wallets, a photo album, a child's

27:03

teddy bear. Meanwhile, the

27:05

families of those missing gathered at

27:07

the airports in Atlanta and Miami,

27:09

where the ambulance chasers and bloodthirsty

27:11

media lie in wait. There

27:13

a problem? I don't know. I'm trying to find

27:16

out. Who are you expecting?

27:19

My sister. And where's she coming from?

27:22

From Miami. This woman is being led

27:24

to a room where she and many

27:26

others were given the awful news that

27:28

the flight en route from Miami to

27:30

Atlanta crashed in the Everglades. The

27:33

recovery mission continued throughout the night,

27:35

using generator powered lights and infrared

27:37

devices, but not a single soul

27:39

was found. By day

27:41

two, all hope was lost. The

27:44

search for survivors was called off, but

27:46

accident investigators would continue to pick

27:49

up the pieces. The

27:52

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now because this offers for a

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limited time only. simplisafe.com/Swindled.

30:41

There's no safe

30:43

like SimpliSafe. Good

30:51

evening. In the Florida Everglades tonight,

30:53

all hopes have ended that there

30:56

will be any survivors from the

30:58

crash of ValueJet Flight 592. But

31:00

now there are questions, many of them,

31:03

about the airline safety record and the

31:05

federal agency that has known about it

31:07

all along. There

31:09

was no way to know what caused the crash of

31:11

ValueJet Flight 592 until the

31:13

wreckage could be analyzed. Investigators

31:15

and recovery teams waded through the

31:17

Everglades looking for the flight data

31:19

and cockpit voice recorders, the so-called

31:21

black boxes that often shed light

31:23

on moments leading up to catastrophe.

31:26

Historically, the majority of aircraft accidents

31:28

can be attributed to pilot error.

31:31

It was too early to rule that

31:33

out in the case of Flight 592,

31:35

but Captain Kendall and Kubek's associates were

31:37

skeptical, including ValueJet President Louis Jordan,

31:40

who described the pilot as

31:42

quote, very experienced, very well

31:44

trained and very competent. Candy

31:46

Kubek was quick on our feet, an

31:49

expert problem solver. According to

31:51

the Sun Sentinel in September 1994, while landing one

31:54

of ValueJet's DC-9s on a wet,

31:56

short runway in Chicago, Kubek maneuvered

31:58

the skidding planes. sideways to avoid

32:01

disaster. She was no stranger

32:03

to emergency situations. In

32:05

fact, as the media quickly pointed out

32:07

in the wake of the accident, most

32:09

value jet pilots were no strangers to

32:11

emergency situations. Since the

32:13

budget airline's inception, there have been

32:16

numerous incidents involving mechanical malfunctions. For

32:19

example, one of value jet's planes embarked on

32:21

140 flights with

32:23

a leaky hydraulic system before it was

32:25

fixed. Another was allowed to fly 31

32:27

times with a broken weather radar

32:30

system. More recently, in

32:32

June 1995, the Turkish-bought engines installed

32:34

in one value jet plane caught

32:36

fire on a runway in Atlanta,

32:38

causing significant injury to a flight

32:41

attendant. Rachel Neal's legs were

32:43

horribly scarred by the shrapnel wounds and

32:45

second and third degree burns. The

32:48

DC-9 that disappeared in the Everglades was

32:50

the culprit in many such emergencies. According

32:53

to the safety record of the

32:55

27-year-old airplane, an overheating engine failed

32:57

cabin pressurizations and unsealed exit doors

33:00

had led to eight unscheduled landings

33:02

and two aborted takeoffs in the

33:04

past two years. Coincidentally,

33:07

or maybe not so much, a

33:09

source told CNN that flight 592

33:11

had been delayed the day it crashed

33:14

because of continuous problems with the circuit

33:16

breaker behind the pilot's seat. Could

33:18

this have sparked an electrical fire that ultimately

33:20

took the plane down? Unlikely,

33:23

but it added another layer of scrutiny

33:25

to the budget airline, which suddenly found

33:27

itself under a microscope. Our

33:30

sincere emotions

33:33

go out to

33:36

the people who are on board the airplane, their

33:39

families, their loved ones, their

33:42

friends. That includes

33:44

both the customers on board that

33:46

airplane and ValueJet's crew members. ValueJet

33:50

president Lewis Jordan found himself

33:52

in a unique position, juggling

33:55

the roles of crisis manager and

33:57

damage controller while simultaneously defending the

50:00

knows that sound is the

50:02

oxygen generators releasing their oxygen

50:04

under this higher temperature. We

50:09

have the tire here which will

50:11

get involved in the fire shortly

50:15

and the tire does rupture as

50:17

a result of the high temperatures

50:21

during the sequence of events.

50:26

According to the accident investigators, the intense fire

50:28

burned through the cargo hold and then through

50:30

the steering cables above it causing the pilots

50:32

to lose all control of the plane. It

50:35

could also not be ruled out that

50:37

the pilots accidentally forced the plane into

50:39

a dive when they slumped over the

50:42

controls after becoming incapacitated by the cyanide-laden

50:44

fumes from the burning plastic around them.

50:47

Investigators presumed that that's how most of

50:49

the passengers died. It

50:52

was a shame because it could have

50:54

all been so easily and in the

50:56

spirit of value jet cheaply avoided. There

50:59

are plastic safety caps for oxygen generators

51:01

that can be used during transport. At

51:04

the time they cost three cents each.

51:07

SabreTech did not use them in this instance

51:10

but the paperwork said they had and

51:12

the supervisor signed off on it. The

51:15

investigation showed that the fire was

51:17

initiated by

51:19

one or more oxygen generators that

51:22

was accidentally triggered when the

51:24

firing mechanism was not properly

51:26

secured. The

51:28

NTSB offered another idea, a fire

51:30

detection and suppression system in the

51:33

cargo holds. Actually

51:35

that was the same idea that the NTSB

51:37

had pitched to the FAA nine years earlier.

51:40

That recommendation was rejected after the FAA

51:42

calculated that it would cost the airlines

51:45

$350 million to retrofit their fleet of

51:47

aircrafts which far exceeded the $159 million value

51:52

placed on the potential loss of human life.

51:55

Instead the FAA compromised and required

51:57

basic smoke alarms in the airplane

51:59

lavatories. mostly to prevent passengers

52:01

from trying to sneak a cigarette. Incredibly,

52:04

federal investigators virtually predicted the Everglades

52:07

crash in 1988. That's

52:10

when the National Transportation Safety Board first urged

52:12

the FAA to require that smoke detectors be

52:14

installed in 2800 widely used passenger jets. It

52:19

has not happened. In

52:21

conclusion, the NTSB assigned equal blame

52:23

to ValueJet, Sabertech, and the FAA

52:26

for the Flight 592 disaster. The

52:29

ValueJet accident resulted from failures all up and

52:32

down the line, Chairman Jim Hall said at

52:34

the day-long hearing, from federal

52:36

regulators to airline executives in the

52:38

boardroom to workers on the shoproom

52:40

floor. Sabertech was to

52:42

blame for its mishandling and mislabeling of

52:45

the oxygen canisters, ValueJet

52:47

for its mismanagement of subcontractors and

52:49

inadequate training of its own employees,

52:53

and the Federal Aviation Administration for

52:55

its lax oversight and failure to

52:57

adopt and enforce preventive measures. This

53:00

is Mary Schiava, the Inspector General of

53:02

the United States Department of Transportation at

53:04

the time, who was publicly

53:06

critical of the FAA, an agency

53:08

her department oversaw. That's

53:10

been their nickname for some time, not

53:12

just this administration, but for several administrations.

53:16

Our safety agency is called the Tombstone

53:18

Agency. Why? Because they

53:20

wait for major loss of life

53:22

before they'll make a safety change.

53:25

Unfortunately, that day had arrived.

53:28

As predicted, long overdue safety changes were

53:31

implemented in response to the crash of

53:33

ValueJet Flight 592. For

53:36

one, the Department of Transportation banned

53:38

oxygen generators as cargo, so you

53:40

can relax about that, but I

53:42

never will. And two, the FAA

53:44

finally adopted new rules that required

53:47

all commercial airliners to be outfitted

53:49

with fire detection and suppression systems

53:51

in cargo departments. You can almost

53:53

hear 110 souls applauding the government

53:55

from beyond the grave for not letting

53:57

them die in vain. ValueJet

54:00

had already tried to wash the stink

54:02

off before the NTSB had even published

54:04

its findings. In July 1997, 14

54:08

months after the disaster, they

54:11

acquired Orlando-based budget airline AirTran

54:13

Airways and adopted their name.

54:16

AirTran operated for another 14 years

54:18

before it was acquired by Southwest Airlines

54:20

for $1.4 billion. Sabertech

54:24

didn't make it out as lucky. The

54:27

company filed for bankruptcy a few years

54:29

later as a quote, direct result of

54:31

the ValueJet crash, according to the company's

54:33

attorney Kenneth Quinn. We

54:35

were just unable to pull ourselves out

54:37

of this tailspin, he told CNN, presumably

54:40

regrettably. Sabertech

54:43

agreed to pay a fine of $1.75 million for 37

54:45

hazardous material violations, but

54:49

admitted no wrongdoing. It was

54:51

the largest hazardous materials fine ever levied by

54:53

the FAA, which was not

54:55

compelled to fine itself. Even

54:58

more unprecedented, in 1999, Sabertech, the

55:02

corporation, and three employees

55:04

were criminally charged with

55:06

terrorism, essentially. A 24-count

55:08

federal indictment accused the company,

55:10

its vice president of maintenance,

55:12

David Gonzalez, and two mechanics,

55:14

Eugene Florence and Mauro Valenzuela

55:16

Flores, of making false statements,

55:18

mishandling hazardous materials, placing a

55:20

destructive device on a civil

55:22

aircraft, and conspiracy to make

55:24

false statements to the Federal

55:26

Aviation Administration and the Department

55:28

of Transportation. The corporation

55:30

faced fines totaling $6 million. The

55:33

employees were looking at up to 55

55:35

years in jail. At

55:37

the same time, the state of

55:39

Florida charged Sabertech and those same

55:41

three employees with 110 counts of

55:43

manslaughter and 110 counts of third-degree

55:46

murder. This crash was

55:48

completely preventable, said Catherine Fernandez Rundle,

55:50

a Florida state attorney. Hopefully

55:52

this chilling reality of criminal charges will

55:55

send a very clear message to the

55:57

aviation industry that will save lives in

55:59

the future. This

56:01

corporation is not going to be

56:03

allowed to escape unpunished when

56:06

it committed crimes and acts that resulted

56:08

in these many, many

56:10

deaths. And make no mistake

56:12

about it, again I repeat, this

56:14

was not an accident, this was a crime,

56:16

it was a homicide. Sabertech

56:19

was convicted of nine counts of criminal

56:21

hazardous materials violations at its federal trial

56:23

in December 1999. The

56:26

company and two employees, David Gonzalez

56:28

and Eugene Florence, were acquitted of

56:30

the most serious charges. The

56:33

third employee charged, Mauro Valenzuela Reyes, did

56:35

not attend the trial because he had

56:37

fled the country and hasn't been seen

56:39

since. Authorities believe he's living

56:41

somewhere in South America under an assumed

56:44

identity. To this day there's a $10,000 reward

56:46

for information leading to his arrest.

56:49

It took value jet flight 592 just

56:52

11 minutes to crash in flames into

56:54

the Everglades. It took a Florida jury

56:56

less than three days to acquit Sabertech,

56:58

value jet's maintenance company on most of

57:00

the criminal charges it faced. And

57:03

two of the company's employees were acquitted on

57:05

all charges. Sabertech

57:07

was ordered to pay $11 million for those

57:09

violations, but that was later reduced to

57:11

just $500,000. Sabertech

57:15

agreed to donate another $500,000 to an

57:17

aviation safety organization in exchange for having

57:20

the murder and manslaughter charges dropped by

57:22

the state of Florida. Instead

57:24

the company agreed to plead no contest to

57:26

one count of unlawful transport of hazardous waste.

57:30

Big business getting away with murder, said

57:32

Laura Sawyer, whose grandparents died in the

57:34

flight 592 crash. Is

57:37

anyone surprised? For the

57:39

responsibility for this accident goes from Sabertech

57:41

to value jet to the FAA. It

57:43

was a comedy of errors and

57:46

they just stacked up against one another

57:48

and they caused this crash. Swindled

57:57

is written, researched, produced and hosted by

57:59

me. Concerned Citizen, with

58:01

original music by Trevor Howard,

58:03

aka Deformer, aka The Critter.

58:06

For more information about Swindled, you

58:08

can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us

58:10

on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok

58:12

at swindledpodcast. Or you can

58:14

send us a postcard at PO Box 6044, Austin, Texas,

58:17

78762, but please no packages, we

58:21

do not trust you. Swindled

58:23

is a completely independent production, which

58:25

means no network, no investors, no

58:27

bosses, no shadowy moneymen, no fancy

58:29

desks, we build our own furniture around

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here, god damn it. We plan to keep it that

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way, but we need your support. Become

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it, thanks for listening. Hello,

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my name is Gwen from New Bern,

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North Carolina. My name is Raquel from

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Whittier, California. Hello, my name is Tamara

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from Ohio, and I'm a intern at

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the Business

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