NTSB Chief Disturbed by ValuJet-Crash Response

The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday that it is disappointed airlines have not yet begun installing smoke alarms and sprinklers in cargo holds in the aftermath of the ValuJet crash last year.

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall, speaking on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” said the board on Tuesday would review and finalize a draft report on the probable cause of the May 11, 1996, accident, which killed all 110 people aboard a Miami-to-Atlanta flight.

He declined to comment further on what recommendations NTSB would make after its investigation into the crash in the Florida Everglades, saying only that lessons have been learned and forgotten in the incident.

Preliminary reports indicate that the crash was caused by a fierce fire in the cargo hold fueled by oxygen-generating canisters that were improperly handled and labeled.

The Federal Aviation Administration was sharply criticized after the crash for lax oversight of the budget air carrier.

In its final report, the NTSB is also expected to be critical of ValuJet and SabreTech Corp., the contractor that handled the oxygen generators.

Hall said the crash might have been averted if the FAA had implemented earlier a 1988 NTSB recommendation that fire detection and suppression systems be installed in the cargo area of airplanes.

The FAA recently ordered airlines to install smoke alarm systems but gave them three years to do it, a period Hall suggested is too long, especially since the ValuJet crash happened over a year ago.