ValuJet searchers to dredge crash crater
May 22, 1996
Web posted at: 12:45 p.m. EDTDADE COUNTY, Florida (CNN) -- Dredging crews brought in a backhoe and other equipment Wednesday to rake the watery pit in the Florida Everglades where ValuJet Flight 592 crashed.
Searchers will sift through the mud and silt to pull out debris, said Metro-Dade Police spokesman Mike McDonald. Photographs will be taken during the operation, and anything recovered will be hauled to the same airplane hangar where other airplane parts were taken for inspection.
Tuesday was a disappointing day for divers who searched the crater hoping to find large parts of the plane and the elusive cockpit voice recorder. All they found were two table-sized chunks of metal too heavy to lift and small pieces of what appeared to be wreckage.
"For now, the dive into the crash crater is over," said Metro-Dade Police diver Paul Toy. He said divers remained on standby in case the National Transportation Safety Board asked them to return to the spot.
Searchers on Wednesday walked shoulder-to-shoulder combing the grid laid over the crash site, feeling around with their feet for any bits of wreckage, body parts or the crucial recorder. (371K QuickTime movie)
A frustrating search
Toy estimated the crater was 75 feet long, 45 feet wide and about 7 feet deep, half water and half mud. But other estimates indicated it was larger.
At the point of the plane's initial impact, the pit is about 12 inches to 18 inches deeper with basketball-size chunks of limestone rubble surrounding the indentation, Toy told CNN's Susan Candiotti during a live interview Wednesday. (224K AIFF or WAV sound)
Toy said once he began kicking up the mud, the underwater visibility was almost nonexistent.
NTSB spokesman Pat Cariseo said it's not unusual that so little remains of the DC-9. He cited two investigations, including the September 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, in which planes spiraled to earth at high speed as the ValuJet plane did, and were pulverized.
Divers still hope to find more than 100 oxygen canisters that were in the Valujet's cargo hold. Investigators are trying to determine if the canisters caused an explosion or fire before Flight 592 went down on May 11, killing all 110 people aboard.
Memorial services
In Atlanta, where ValuJet is headquartered and where Flight 592 was headed when it crashed, about 200 people attended a memorial service Tuesday. Many of the mourners wore ribbons of yellow and light blue -- the colors of the discount airline. (545K QuickTime movie)
Addressing relatives and friends of the victims, the mother of pilot Candalyn Kubeck said her daughter was "no fly-by-night pilot."
"Whatever happened in that airplane was beyond human control. If anybody could have saved your loved ones, Candy could have and would have," Marilyn Chamberlin said. (192K AIFF or WAV sound)
A service to honor the five-member flight crew, who were based at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, is scheduled for Thursday in Irving, Texas.
A ValuJet founder sells stock
Meantime, the airline announced that Timothy Flynn, a ValuJet founder and board member, had sold 1.5 million shares of his stock. Their value has fallen sharply since the crash.
Flynn sold the shares Monday to pay off investment loans, ValuJet said. The company refused to say whether the loans were used to invest in the airline.
ValuJet spokesman Gregg Kenyon said Flynn, who put up about $1 million to help start the company in 1992, wasn't giving up on the company. Flynn still owns 4.5 million shares.
Flynn may have sold the shares a little too soon. After falling $1.88 per share on Monday and extending the stock's fall to 37 percent since the crash, ValuJet rose nearly $1.88 Tuesday to finish at $13.12-1/2 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Correspondent Susan Candiotti and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- 'There's no airplane left' - May 21, 1996
- CNNfn - ValuJet co-founder sells 1.5 million shares - May 21, 1996
- Divers find little in probe of ValuJet crash crater - May 21, 1996
- ValuJet searchers face stormy weather - May 20, 1996
- More signs of fire found in ValuJet debris - May 19, 1996
- Ground-penetrating radar added to ValuJet search - May 19, 1996
- Muddy crater may hold clues to ValuJet crash - May 18, 1996
- Divers going into crater caused by DC-9 crash - May 18, 1996
- Poll shows confidence gap in budget airlines - May 18, 1996
- ValuJet cuts flights; FAA says airline is safe - May 17, 1996
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