Trucker Accused of Stealing ValuJet Parts

A trucker hired to haul the wreckage of ValuJet Flight 592 was arrested Monday on charges of stealing pieces of the jet, including part of the circuit breaker panel that investigators say might be a valuable clue.

Michael E. Gadsden, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said he took the parts as souvenirs, according to the FBI. He was jailed on $50,000 bail.

FBI agents said they found two aircraft pieces at his home in Fort Lauderdale. One piece was part of a circuit breaker panel, which apparently came from the cockpit, investigators said. The other was a 12-by-8-inch piece of the fuselage.

Investigators had been eager to inspect the circuit breaker panel to see if it played a role in the fire that burned aboard the plane before it plunged into the Everglades on May 11, killing all 110 people on board.

Gadsden was fired by his employer, Resolve Towing and Salvage. He could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $250,000.

In Atlanta, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday the intense scrutiny the agency faces after the ValuJet crash in Florida is not likely to result in fundamental changes in FAA policy or its structure.

“The FAA’s a very, very sound first-class organization,” Administrator David Hinson told Reuters during a visit to Atlanta. “This is very natural when there is any accident. We go back and look at everything we do. People look at what the FAA does.”

More than a dozen FAA inspectors were involved in an intensified oversight inspection of ValuJet’s operations before the May 11 crash. The agency had stepped up scrutiny of the low-cost carrier in late February, but recent press reports say that occurred only after auditors and its own safety office issued blistering indictments of the effectiveness of FAA safety inspections.

Congressional hearings into the ValuJet crash and the FAA’s performance are scheduled for July 19.