All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S04E02.Fire.in.the.Hold.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Man: A large jet aircraft
has just crashed out here.

Large, like airliner size.

Man: You could smell
the jet fuel,

you could smell
the hydraulic fluid,

you could smell death.

Man: We're going to scour
this swamp quadrant by quadrant.

Narrator: NTSB investigators
face an unprecedented challenge.

Man: My first thought is:
How am I going to pull this off?

Narrator: It's up to Greg Feith
and his team

to figure out why
Valujet flight 592

erupted into flames...

Pilot: Fire!

Narrator: ...just minutes
after takeoff.

Man: Okay, let's start it up.

We had a raging fire.

Man: We almost destroyed
their test facility.

Man: The Secretary of
Transportation lost his job.

The Administrator of the FAA
lost his job

because of this one accident.

Flight Attendant:
We're completely on fire!

Pilot: Mayday, mayday!

Narrator: It's been six months

since Florida's worst
aviation disaster.

Woman: Valujet forced
many people in this agency

to ask some
very tough questions.

Narrator: Federal hearings
into the fiery crash

of Valujet flight 592

are filled with controversy
and recrimination.

Woman: I'm the mother
of the captain of Valujet 592,

Captain Candalyn
Chamberlain Kubeck,

and I am very angry.

Malcolm Brenner: This was one
of these historic cases

that had a tremendous amount

of public attention
and public concern.

Woman: I have always thought
this crash

was very preventable
and very senseless.

Mother: Valujet 592
fell out of the sky

because of a complete breakdown
of the system.

Narrator: The federal aviation
administration is under attack

for failing to implement
safety recommendations

made eight years ago
after another onboard fire.

In 1988,
an American Airlines crew

managed to land
their burning DC-9

and save the lives
of all 120 passengers.

Man: Had the Federal Aviation
Administration

required fire
and smoke detection

and/or fire extinguishment
systems,

as the safety board recommended
in 1988,

Valujet flight 592
would not have crashed.

Narrator: The 105 passengers
who were put in danger

by that bureaucratic failure...

Flight Attendant: 11A and B.

Narrator:
...boarded a Valujet DC-9

on the morning of may 11, 1996.

Flight 592 is a 1 1/2-hour trip
from Miami to Atlanta, Georgia.

Flight Attendant:
Let me help you with that.

Jerome Chandler: Valujet was one
of the first low cost carriers.

People, instead of driving,

they were getting on this
low-fare blue and white airplane

with the cartoon character.

Woman: There's some little,
little hair clips in there, too.

Narrator: It's the crew's second
flight of the day on this plane.

In command of flight 592
is 35-year-old Candalyn Kubeck.

Captain Kubeck is
an experienced pilot

with nearly 9,000 flight hours.

Richard Hazen: Okay...

Narrator: The first officer
is a former Air Force pilot,

52-year-old Richard Hazen.

Hazen: Clear to start?
Candalyn Kubeck: Proceed.

Hazen: Shoulder harness?

Kubeck: On.

Hazen: Parking brakes?

Kubeck: On.

Narrator: Today's flight
is loaded

with almost 4,409 pounds
of cargo

which includes
passenger luggage,

Valujet company material
and U.S. Mail.

The crew must sign off
on all cargo loaded onboard.

With the paperwork complete...

Hazen: There you go.

Narrator: ...they prepare
to taxi to the runway.

Controller: Critter 592,
taxi to runway niner-left.

Hazen: Nine-left, critter 592.

Narrator: The DC-9
is 27 years old.

It has more than 68,000 hours
of flight time.

On the flight into Miami
from Atlanta that day,

the autopilot wasn't working,
and the P.A. System was broken.

Kubeck: You want to test out
the P.A., talk to the people?

Hazen: Ladies and gentlemen,
from the cockpit

we're in a hold right now for
crossing traffic on the ground.

Narrator: Mechanics in Miami
were able to fix the P.A.

Flight attendant: It works.
We can hear you loud and clear.

Controller: Critter 592, runway
9-left cleared for takeoff.

Narrator: But repairs to the
autopilot will have to wait.

Kubeck: Set takeoff power.

Narrator: Once the DC-9 is back

at airline headquarters
in Atlanta...

Hazen: Power is set.

Narrator: ...mechanics there
will work on the problem.

Hazen: Rotate.

Chandler: The sky was
relatively benign that may day.

And they were just looking
forward to getting home.

Hazen: Positive rate.

Chandler: There was no portent
at all about that flight.

Kubeck: Gear up.

Narrator: Without the autopilot

the pilots will manually fly the
aircraft for the return flight.

It's an inconvenience, but not
all that unusual, nor unsafe.

Kubeck: What was that?

Hazen: I don't know.

Kubeck: We've got
some electrical problem.

Hazen: Yeah. That battery
charger's kicking in.

Narrator: The plane's batteries
are draining fast.

Captain Kubeck worries
she could lose power

to her instrument panel
and other key flight systems.

Kubeck: We're losing everything.

Narrator: Just six minutes
after takeoff

the crew is facing
a barrage of failures.

Controller: Critter 592,
contact Miami Center on 1-32-45.

So long.

Narrator: Controllers in Miami
believe flight 592

is safely on its way to Atlanta.

But in the cockpit

Captain Kubeck decides
to turn around.

Kubeck: We need...we need to go
back to Miami.

Woman: Do you smell smoke?

Passengers: Fire!

Narrator: It's suddenly clear
why their systems are failing.

Flames are burning
through the cabin floor.

Hazen: 592 needs
immediate return to Miami.

Narrator: Kubeck has to get
the burning plane on the ground

as quickly as possible.

Chandler: You can only shed
altitude so fast.

You point it down much more
than five or six degrees,

and all of a sudden
you can become

in an over speed situation.

You can stress the aircraft.

And you don't want to do that.

Controller: Roger, critter 592.
Turn left heading 2-7-0.

Descend and maintain 7,000 feet.

What kind of problem
are you having?

Kubeck: Fire!

Hazen: Smoke in the cock...
Smoke in the cabin.

Controller: Okay, roger that.

Chandler: The first officer
is handling the communication.

The captain is handling
the airplane.

They want to try to get
on the ground.

They're working
in a coordinated fashion--

classic cockpit resource
management.

Nobody is panicking.

Nobody is throwing in the towel.

Kubeck: What altitude?

Hazen: 7,000.

Narrator: Captain Kubeck
throttles back

in an attempt to descend.

But the left engine
doesn't respond.

It stays at climb power.

As the right engine slows,
the plane banks to the right.

She discovers her ailerons
still have life

and manages to stabilize
the plane.

Chandler: That was a good crew
up in the nose of that airplane.

Narrator: Passengers are in
a desperate fight for survival.

But there's no escaping
the onboard flames,

which are burning at
over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Toxic smoke is filling
the entire cabin.

Chandler: This is heavy,
poisonous smoke.

People are breathing it in.

Brenner: When a fire's onboard,

there's a real sense
of helplessness.

There's a limited number
of things you can do.

Woman: Take short breaths.

Narrator: Less than 10,000 feet
above southern Florida's,

Captain Kubeck has the plane

in a tight turn
back to the airport.

Flight attendant:
We're completely on fire.

Narrator: The crew of flight 592
has only seconds

to get the burning DC-9
onto a runway

before all is lost.

Hazen: Critter 592.

We need the closest airport
available!

Controller: Critter 592,

they're gonna be
standing by for you.

Narrator: Emergency crews in
Miami prepare for the landing.

Chandler: The airplane starts
losing altitude progressively.

The airplane is out of control.

Narrator: The first officer's
request for an alternate airport

are the last words
controllers hear from the crew.

The DC-9 plummets
toward the ground

at over 430 miles per hour.

Flight 592 has crashed

into one of the most
inhospitable spots on earth--

the Florida's Everglades.

Man: A large jet aircraft
has just crashed out here.

Large, like airliner size.

You need to get your choppers
in the air.

Narrator: The Everglades covers

much of the southern tip
of Florida's:

Hundreds of square miles
of shallow swamp, mangroves

and watery grassland.

Just getting to the crash site

will be a huge challenge
for rescuers.

Miami-Dade police helicopters

find the wreckage
of Valujet flight 592

in swampland far
from the nearest highway.

Reporter:
Federal safety officials say

it's the most difficult recovery
operation they've ever faced,

with wreckage strewn
like confetti

in a muddy,
alligator-infested swamp

that can only be reached
by helicopter or air boat.

Man: It's a very waterous,
marshy area,

and that's proving
difficult to...

To reach people that may...
May have survived this crash.

Narrator: Rescuers know
that the first hours

of this rescue operation
are critical.

In 1972,
Eastern Airlines flight 401

crashed into the Everglades,

three miles from
the Valujet crash site.

Several passengers drowned

before rescuers
could reach them.

Paul toy: To be in
the Everglades after the crash,

it was utter devastation,
destruction.

The smell, you could smell
the jet fuel.

You could smell
the hydraulic fluid.

You could smell death.

Narrator: Most of the aircraft

has sunk beneath the surface
of the swamp.

Brenner: The wreckage
was in the Everglades.

It's a hostile environment.

It wasn't clear at that point
how much we'd be able to...

To learn from the wreckage
or be able to recover.

Toy: We suited up
as best as possible.

We first put on that tyvek suit.

And then we put on
an extra sleeve.

Put two surgical gloves on.

Put a pair of work gloves on.

And then they duct-taped the
work gloves to the tyvek suit.

Narrator: The heavy gear
protects rescuers

from spilled fuel
and other toxins.

But below the surface
of the swamp

lurks an even deadlier threat.

Toy: They had to have
a sharpshooter

on top of the airboat
at all times.

Narrator: The crash site is a
nesting grounds for alligators.

Greg Feith: As the divers
were walking in the water,

if somebody sighted
an alligator,

or you'd hear them hiss
in the sawgrass,

they would take potshots
to try and scare them away.

Narrator: Just hours
after the crash,

officials come
to a grim conclusion.

Toy: It doesn't look good
that there are any survivors.

Narrator: All 105 passengers
onboard flight 592 are dead.

Captain Kubeck,
first officer Richard Hazen

and three flight attendants
are also dead.

Man: I feel that it's going
to be difficult,

if not impossible,
to identify everybody.

Brenner: There was no evidence
of the airplane.

There was just debris.

Very little present
and no evidence of passengers.

Toy: You had to put it
out of your mind

what actually you were doing.

You could not think of what
it was that you were picking up.

If you did you would be useless,

and you wouldn't be able
to do the job.

Chandler: My initial reaction
in a situation like that

is just, it's anger.

It's "not again."

It's "how can this happen?"

It's "what happened?"
"Why?"

Narrator: The morning
after the crash,

NTSB investigators join
local and Federal Police agents

at the site.

They know the pilots
of flight 592

reported smoke in the cabin.

Now they need to find out
what caused it.

Feith: Alright!
Let's get to work.

Narrator: The team is led by
veteran investigator Greg Feith.

Feith: You got to step back,
take a deep breath

and then start to prioritize:

Okay, what do I have to do now?

And then utilize the resources
to make that happen.

It's showtime.
Here we go.

Man: I'll let Greg answer that,
but I...

Feith: There's actually
no way to tell

if the pilots were conscious
or unconscious

at the time of impact.

My first thought is:
How am I going to pull this off?

Narrator: Feith faces
intense pressure

to come up with answers,
and quickly.

Bill Clinton: I'm determined
to do everything I can

to make sure that
American aviation

is the safest in the world.

Narrator: The NTSB briefs
the many volunteers

who've come to help recover
the wreckage.

Feith: Need your eyes.

Now we've drawn up a grid.

We're going to scour this swamp
quadrant by quadrant.

Everybody's looking to me
for the answers

because I am in charge
of the investigation.

What are we going to do?
What do you want us to do?

Where do you
want us to go?

Narrator: The first priority

is to find the aircraft's
two black boxes.

Feith: This is what
we're looking for.

This here is the data recorder.

And this here is
the voice recorder.

You find one, you'll probably
find the other one close by.

Narrator: From the CVR,
investigators hope to hear

the last sounds in the cockpit.

Pilot conversation...

Kubeck: We need...we need to go
back to Miami.

Narrator: ...and any alarms
that might help identify

where the smoke originated.

The flight data recorder
should reveal

how a fire might have spread,

through the sequence of failures
it likely caused.

Each box holds clues
that could help investigators

uncover the precise cause
of the crash.

Feith: If you find one,
the cold beer's on me.

Narrator: The black boxes
emit a constant radio signal.

Searchers will use
a sonar scanner

to pick up that signal.

Feith: How soon can we get
out there with the sonar?

The sonar's on its way.

We'll be able to pick up
those pingers

that hopefully identify
where, in fact,

those boxes lie in the wreckage.

Narrator: But navy technicians
soon find

that their sophisticated gear
is no match for the Everglades.

Feith: Side scan sonar
didn't work

because the sawgrass is so dense

it can't see
through the sawgrass.

What really worked for us
was going back to the basics.

We had a line
of what we call divers

that had to walk basically
shoulder length apart,

and we would cover
specific areas, probing

until we hit something hard.

It ended up being human power
that really helped us recover

better than 75% of the aircraft.

Narrator: As the Everglades
search continues,

investigators in Miami dig
through flight 592's records

looking for clues as to what
might have caused a fire.

They soon learn that the flight
was delayed earlier in the day

due to minor
electrical problems.

The find raises concern

that an electrical fire
brought down the plane.

Brenner: We were looking
at any explanation.

There could have been a fault in
the wiring or a short circuit.

And we realized it's going to be
a very difficult investigation.

Narrator: Recovery teams
continue to battle intense heat.

Feith: Florida, in may,
90 degrees, 95% humidity--

we had to worry about how long
can you be in that heat?

Toy: And you're trudging through
and you're in your waders

and you're stepping on stuff.

You have to bend down

and you have to pick it up
and see what it is.

Feith: There were times where,
you know,

you think you're picking up
a wire bundle,

and it was a snake.

You're picking up
the back end of a snake.

So it was all of those things
that made this probably

one of the most challenging
environments

for an accident investigation
to be conducted.

Narrator: NTSB Fire Investigator
Merritt Birky studies

masses of tangled wiring
from the crash site.

Merritt Birky: I was sent down
there to determine the cause

of that in-flight fire.

Narrator: When faulty wiring
sparks a fire,

electrical arcing causes
the wires to burn and melt.

Birky: When we recovered
more of the electrical harness

on the plane,
we saw some damage there,

but it wasn't evidence of
electrical arcing on the wires.

It was all external damage
to the insulation.

Narrator:
The careful examination

rules out faulty wiring as
a potential cause of the fire.

Another challenge--

the Everglades is not
a stagnant swamp.

It has a current
that flows out to sea.

Feith: One of the unique things
about the Florida's Everglades

is that it's water.

And it's constantly in motion.

Narrator: That current
makes the job

of tracking down aircraft debris
even harder.

Feith: Well, as the water moves,
and basically the tide

goes up and down, if you will,

some of those parts
that were trapped

under water in the sawgrass

would break loose
and float to the surface.

You could go back and find
more parts

than the first day
you were in that grid.

Narrator: Two days
into the investigation,

Feith finally catches a break.

Feith: A hot damn.

We found ourselves a box.

It was sitting on the bottom
in the mud partially submerged

under about three to four feet
of water.

Feith: One of the Metro-Dade
Police Fire Rescue folks

was walking their grid

and actually stepped
on one of the orange boxes.

The whole accident site,
all of the investigators,

everybody comes to a halt
as soon as the word spreads

that we think we got a recorder.

Reporter:
Officials wasted no time

bringing it out of the swamp
into a police car

and onto a plane for Washington.

Narrator: The aging DC-9 was
equipped with a primitive FDR.

It recorded
only 11 flight parameters,

compared to the hundreds
recorded by modern units.

But the next morning,
when Feith studies

the preliminary results
from Washington,

he finds a clue that may point
to the origin of the fire.

Feith: Dive 800 feet and back
in three seconds.

It's impossible.

Narrator: The FDR recorded a
sudden increase in air pressure.

Feith: What we found
on the flight data recorder,

that records the parameter
of the static pressure,

was that there was a bump.

It spiked, briefly, and then
went back to a nominal value.

Narrator:
Sensors on the fuselage

measure outside air pressure.

Normally the pressure
decreases with altitude.

But as flight 592 was climbing

the pressure briefly went up,
not down.

A DC-9 cannot dive and climb
that quickly.

The numbers don't make sense.

Feith: Look at this.

We really didn't know what--

I mean, we theorized about
a variety of different things.

Could have been
an explosion onboard?

Narrator: A shockwave moving
outward from inside the aircraft

can cause a sudden spike
in external pressure.

Feith: And of course you start
thinking,

hmm, an explosion could do that.

So do we have a bomb?

Narrator: With an onboard
explosion a real possibility,

Merritt Birky examines
the wreckage

to see if he can figure out
where the fire originated.

Birky: So we had a lot of...

A lot of parts coming in
that were damaged,

almost all limited
to the cargo compartment.

We had melted
structure components

that were in the overhead
of the cargo compartment,

which made up the floor
of the passenger compartment.

And then we also had some
seat tracks for the passengers

that were burned and melted.

We determined that the fire
was very intense

up in the upper area
of the cargo compartment

on the left side.

Narrator: Birky makes
an unusual discovery.

Birky: It's stainless steel.

You don't normally see
burned stainless steel

in an in-flight fire.

Narrator: Planes are made
of lightweight material

like aluminum and titanium,
not stainless steel.

The burned metal
raises a question:

Just what kind of cargo
was onboard the plane?

Investigator Malcolm Brenner
needs to know

exactly what type of cargo
Valujet flight 592 was carrying.

Brenner: The operations group
more and more became concerned

about the cargo that was loaded
on the airplane

and what possible significance
it could have to the accident.

Narrator: The cargo
documentation lists

three airplane tires and five
boxes of empty oxygen canisters.

Brenner: The operations group
found that the manifest,

which indicated that there were
oxygen canisters--

empty oxygen canisters--
in the cargo,

signed for by the first officer.

Hazen: There you go.

Brenner: When Greg Feith
was available, I briefed him.

Okay, company material:

Three aircraft tires
and five boxes of parts.

Feith: Malcolm is a pilot.

He has an understanding
of aviation.

He's a smart guy.

Brenner: It's the contents
of the cardboard boxes

that confuse me.

144 empty oxygen canisters.

Feith: Wait.
How many of them?

Brenner: 144.

Feith: An oxygen canister
is a green bottle,

very large bottle,
that supplies oxygen

to the flight crew
and the passengers.

There's no way, Malcolm.

You can't fit that many
on a plane.

We all took a pause and said:

Why would you be carrying 144

of these big green
oxygen cylinders?

Malcolm asked
a very innocent question.

Brenner: What exactly
do you think they mean

by "oxygen canister"?

Feith: And that's really what
triggered the investigators

to step back and say:

We need to verify
exactly what was meant.

Narrator: At the crash site,
the recovery work continues.

The debris includes dozens
of small metal cylinders--

parts not from the DC-9.

Investigators now understand
what was in the boxes

listed on the cargo manifest.

Feith: We found out that it was
not a canister

but in fact an oxygen generator.

Narrator: Oxygen generators
are small devices

installed above passenger seats
of certain airlines.

They're connected
to oxygen masks that drop down

in the event
of cabin depressurization.

Pulling down on the mask
yanks a lanyard,

which slides out
a retaining pin.

That triggers
a chemical reaction

that generates
breathable oxygen.

Feith: The masks are attached
to nipples

on this oxygen generator.

That's the supplemental oxygen

that flows through the tube
to the mask.

Narrator: Investigators wonder
whether the oxygen generators

that were being carried
in the cargo hold

could have caused the fire.

Feith: We had five boxes
of these, or 144 of them,

thrown in a box,
carried as cargo.

We had to look at, well,
if they're carrying these,

and they're supposedly empty,

what danger is there
carrying them as cargo?

There's no question.
They're clearly listed as empty.

Did they have a potential
for creating a fire,

or a fire situation,

that could have jeopardized
the safety of this aircraft?

Narrator: As recovery teams
continue

to pull oxygen generators from
the bottom of the Everglades,

they find that while some
are in fact empty...

Feith: This one's never even
been triggered.

Narrator:
...many others are full.

Feith: The oxygen generators
that we had found

had been damaged.

Some of them were
completely flattened.

Some of them were charred
and crushed.

Some of them still had
the material in 'em,

but the case had been dented
and damaged.

Narrator: It's the temperature
of the canisters

after they've been triggered
that concerns investigators.

Birky: These things
get pretty hot, Greg.

Really hot.

Narrator: They can reach
500 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's why in the cabin

they're stored behind
a heat-resistant shield.

Feith: An oxygen generator

that is not mounted
in its proper position

in a heat sink cradle
in the passenger service unit

is lethal.

Because if it's anywhere
near a combustible material,

you're gonna have a fire.

Narrator: It now seems
highly volatile chemicals

were improperly shipped
aboard flight 592.

Had the pilots known
what was actually onboard,

they likely would not have
signed off on the manifest.

Hazen: Here you go.

Narrator: They and their 105
passengers would still be alive.

Four days after the crash
of flight 592,

hazardous materials specialist
Jim Henderson joins the team.

Jim Henderson:
Initial documentation

that we were looking for

was the records of where
the chemical oxygen generators

had come from, how they got
on the airplane.

Narrator: Henderson reviews the
history of the Valujet fleet.

Henderson: We found out that
Valujet had recently purchased

three airplanes
from other carriers.

Well, I think I know
where they came from.

Valujet's work order
on these airplanes

basically were
to open the plane up,

find out what the dates were
on the generators.

Narrator: Oxygen generators
have a shelf life.

To meet federal
safety standards,

any out-of-date generators
on the recently purchased planes

needed to be replaced.

That job was given
to a company called Sabretech.

Henderson: We spoke
to the maintenance personnel,

primarily to find out
how these were handled.

Thanks for taking time.

The chemical oxygen generators

had been removed
from an airplane.

We wanted to make sure
that they were handled

in accordance
with their work cards.

Narrator: Henderson learns
that Sabretech removed

144 oxygen generators.

Most of them were out of date,
but still full.

There are strict guidelines
regulating

how oxygen generators are to be
removed and shipped safely.

Henderson: The work orders
basically described

how to take them
off the aircraft

and how to replace the new
generators on the aircraft.

Once removed from the aircraft,
one of the safety precautions

is to replace the safety cap

that keeps it from
accidentally activating.

Mechanic: It says we should
put shipping caps on them.

Do we have any?

Brenner: Many of the mechanics

realized how dangerous
they were.

The mechanics recognized
the need for safety caps.

Several mechanics told us
in interviews

that they had advised
their supervisors

of the need for safety caps.

Henderson: They look like this.
Did you see any?

Mechanic: No.
They didn't have any.

And you can't take them
off the new ones.

Narrator: Henderson learns

that since they didn't have
protective caps,

Sabretech mechanics improvised.

Henderson:
The maintenance people

didn't have the safety caps.

One of the other things that was
mentioned on the work order

was that they'd take
the lanyards

and wrap them around
the oxygen generator.

There were several others

who felt that the lanyards
were unnecessary,

so they actually physically
cut the lanyards off,

leaving the pins basically free
inside of the generator.

Henderson: Did you put any
labels on the actual generators?

Mechanic: After I pulled them
out, I put a green tag on them.

Narrator: On the tags,

Sabretech workers
wrote the word "expired."

What investigators
still don't know

is how the 144 oxygen generators

ended up on a passenger plane
weeks later.

Henderson: And at that point
they're to be disposed.

Now the disposal requires
that they be disposed

as a hazardous waste.

Narrator: When investigators
interview

Sabretech shipping staff,

they learn that the generators
sat in the hangar for weeks.

Henderson: Sabretech had
a new customer coming in.

And they wanted to clean up
the area for the new customer,

to give them a good impression
of their company.

As far as they were concerned,
they were Valujet's material,

and therefore they were to be
returned to Valujet.

Narrator: Investigators discover

that the potentially hazardous
generators were on flight 592

due to a misunderstanding
over a single word: Expired.

Henderson: Did someone
actually think

that "expired" meant "empty"?

The shipping papers described
the oxygen generators

as oxy--o-x-y, for oxygen--
canisters,

and then the word "empty."

This was a big problem

because these oxygen generators
weren't empty.

They had expired,
but expiration just meant

that they had exceeded
their shelf life.

The use of the term "empty"
was an error on his part.

However, the shipping clerk
himself wasn't that familiar

with the oxygen generators.

They were still capable
of generating oxygen.

They hadn't been properly safed.

They hadn't been
properly packaged.

So we were really concerned

that this might be either
what caused the accident

or what made the fire worse.

Narrator: On may 11, 1996,

airport workers loaded
potentially flammable cargo

onto Valujet 592.

However, the DC-9's cargo hold

is specifically designed
to contain a fire.

Feith: Regulations required
that the cargo hold be airtight.

If in fact you do have a fire
in that cargo hold,

it will burn itself out
because it's airtight.

Narrator: But would
a cargo fire burn out

if the cargo itself
produced oxygen?

Feith: We knew about
the oxygen generators.

We knew the potential they had
for being a fire source,

but we didn't really know,
in the grand scheme of things,

their real potential
for bringing down an aircraft.

Narrator: At an FAA
fire test facility...

Feith: Okay, let's do this.

Narrator: ...they hope
to recreate the fire

that consumed flight 592.

Feith: One minute to ignition.

We had to trigger one of
the oxygen generators manually.

Birky: Nothing at all.

We didn't really get
much of a fire.

Narrator: An activated oxygen
generator isn't enough

to set fire to the cardboard box
it's packed in.

Feith: So how did these things
start a fire?

Narrator: NTSB investigators
are back at square one.

They can't prove their theory.

Birky: What were these things
packed in?

Narrator: The failure
of the fire test

prompts investigators
to look more closely

at exactly how
the oxygen generators

were packaged for transport.

Birky: The first test we did,

we had not packed them exactly
the way they were packed.

Feith: I need a layer
of bubble wrap...

Birky: We did not use
bubble wrap in the first test,

that is put bubble wrap
over the top of the generators

before we closed the box.

We put five boxes
of oxygen generators,

put them on top of a tire and
put some luggage around them.

Feith: Okay, let's start it up.

It made an unbelievable noise.

It sounded, it was
a high-pitched scream.

We all looked at each other
and we were kind of startled,

I mean the sound was deafening.

Narrator:
Ten minutes after ignition

the ceiling of the test
cargo container

reaches 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit.

Birky: Lord almighty.

We almost destroyed
their test facility.

Narrator: After 11 minutes

it exceeds the capacity
of the monitoring equipment.

Feith: Alright,
let's get that fire out.

We had a raging fire, and none
of us had expected a fire

to be that big and that hot.

And it was just amazing
to see how disastrous,

how, how destructive
something this long

and that big around could be.

Narrator: The experiment
supports the NTSB theory:

Improperly packaged
oxygen generators

caused the crash of Valujet 592.

Even in an airtight cargo hold,
the fire would have burned

fiercely enough
to bring down the DC-9.

Feith: The problem
with flight 592

is that you defeat
the intended purpose

of the class d cargo hold,

because even though the hold
may be airtight,

you've got 144 sources of oxygen
in that airtight container.

Narrator:
Investigators now suspect

that the accidental activation
of a generator

during loading or on takeoff

is all it took

to trigger a disaster
that claimed 110 lives.

With the help of the plane's
flight recorders...

Feith: Oxygen generators
are loaded sometime after 1300.

Narrator: ...investigators
are able to reconstruct

the final moments
of Valujet 592.

Hazen: Positive rate.

Kubeck: Gear up.

Feith: There was a muffled bump
or thump

that had come off
the cockpit voice recorder,

which prompted the captain
to ask...

Kubeck: What was that?
Hazen: I don't know.

Feith: That muffled noise,
that thump,

when you marry that information
up to the flight data recorder,

it happened at the same time

that we saw the bump
in the static pressure.

Narrator: The sound recorded on
the CVR is the tire exploding.

The same explosion picked up
by the flight data recorder.

Controller: What kind of problem
are you having?

Kubeck: Fire!

Hazen: Smoke in the cock...
Smoke in the cabin.

Feith: It's been 30 seconds
since the explosion.

Hazen requests
a return to Miami.

Hazen: 592 needs
immediate return to Miami.

Feith: We can hear a lot
of background noises.

We have the flight attendant
coming up front.

Flight attendant:
We're completely on fire!

Feith: She's talking
about how bad the fire is,

and the last part of it
is silent.

And then nothing.

There is no crew interaction.
There is no talking.

There is no
verbal communication.

All you hear
is the sound of the wind.

It indicated to us that whatever
was happening was fast,

incapacitated the flight crew

to the point where they were
unconscious.

It only took 3 minutes
and 42 seconds

for the fire to bring down
the plane.

Narrator: There was no chance

of getting the plane
to the ground safely.

In the wake of the accident,

the FAA grounds Valujet
indefinitely.

The national transportation
safety board

recommends better training

for employees who handle
oxygen generators.

Chandler: There weren't
any bad guys with black hats.

They were all people
just trying to get by,

doing the best they could.

Narrator: The NTSB also renews
its call from 8 years earlier

to have smoke detectors
and fire extinguishers

installed in the cargo holds
of all passenger jets.

Chandler:
The FAA turned around,

after Valujet crashed,

and mandated fire suppression
and fire alerting systems,

but they should have done that
a long time ago.

Woman: An inferno. What a hell
those people went through.

Man: Our loved ones are dead

because this agency
has not done its job.

Chandler: It's classic
tombstone regulation.

You build a body count,

and that body count
is the only thing

that sways people to go out
and do anything.

Feith: The secretary of
transportation lost his job.

The administrator of
the FAA lost his job

because of this one accident.

Brenner: It was
a very important lesson,

and it's unfortunate

that it comes about

with this kind of cost.

But this was a case

that did make major changes

in the industry,

that we all work together

to make sure this
doesn't happen again.