THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605120189 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
ValuJet, a 3-year-old airline that offers low fares and no frills, has been under government scrutiny because of its rapid growth and a rash of safety problems.
Until Saturday, none of those problems resulted in any deaths. But the Federal Aviation Administration has been scrutinizing the Atlanta airline intensely.
The airline started three years ago with two aging DC-9 jets. It has grown to a 51-jet operation that serves 31 cities, including Newport News.
In February, the airline underwent a seven-day inspection, followed by a 120-day ``special emphasis inspection'' that is still under way. Lewis Jordan, ValuJet president and chief operating officer, said Saturday that the FAA launched the inspections because the airline ``was growing so rapidly.''
``The effect this is going to have is that we will be focused on what happened, on what our responsibility is,'' Jordan said at a news conference. ``If safety was a factor, we will take immediate action,'' Jordan said.
The most serious incident before Saturday was an engine fire that destroyed a ValuJet DC-9 on the runway in Atlanta last June.
The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the fire to corrosion that was apparently covered over rather than repaired at a Turkish repair facility. ValuJet had purchased the planes from a Turkish airline.
Three flight attendants and four passengers were injured: one of the flight attendants was badly burned.
Among the incidents that prompted the FAA inspection were these:
In February, the landing gear of a ValuJet plane collapsed in Nashville.
In January, a hard landing extensively damaged an DC-9, also in Nashville.
In January, a DC-9 got stuck in mud at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta.
Also in January, a ValuJet DC-9 with 30 people on board skidded off an icy runway at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, closing the airport for nearly three hours. No one was hurt.
Last month, ValuJet said it would voluntarily slow its growth this year in response to the FAA's concerns.
ValuJet's fleet of airplanes is comprised mostly of McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jets. Jordan said that, as a result of the slowdown, the airline will have 54 jets at the end of the year, rather than 58.
ValuJet said in April it was slowing growth ``in part, in response to increased FAA scrutiny and requirements . . . that resulted from recent incidents involving the company's aircraft.''
Florida aviation consultant Mike Clark cautioned Saturday that it is ``far too early to determine that the past incidents'' had any relationship to Saturday's crash.
Clark noted that ValuJet has been one of the airline industry's most successful startups.
Despite its safety problems, ValuJet continued to attract passengers.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE FATALITIES VALUJET by CNB