ValuJet trial brings contractor to court

Daniel Gonzalez

By CATHERINE WILSON

The Associated Press

MIAMI --- A maintenance contractor driven out of business by the fallout from the ValuJet crash goes on trial today in an unprecedented criminal pursuit in an aviation disaster.

Investigators spread blame for the 1996 Florida Everglades crash among the maintenance contractor --- SabreTech --- the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The indictment, believed to be the first to bring criminal charges against a company for a commercial jet crash, focused on work SabreTech performed for the airline.

"This was an accident, not a crime," SabreTech attorney Kenneth Quinn told an aviation maintenance conference last month. "The criminalization of aviation accidents is an ominous development."

A SabreTech crew had removed outdated oxygen generators from the compartments above passenger seats in another ValuJet plane and delivered them to the discount carrier for a flight to its home in Atlanta.

Required plastic safety caps weren't installed on the explosive- tipped generators. They were mislabeled as empty, and a ValuJet ground crew loaded them onto Flight 592.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the generators fueled a cargo fire that brought down the DC-9 about 11 minutes after takeoff from Miami, killing all 110 people on board. Thomas Balandran and Marlo Cuevas-Balandran, both 26-year-old Topekans, were among passengers on plane.

Federal prosecutors charged SabreTech, a maintenance vice president, Daniel Gonzalez, and two mechanics, Eugene Florence and fugitive Chilean native Mauro Valenzuela, with conspiracy and making false entries on repair documents.

SabreTech, a defunct subsidiary of St. Louis-based Sabreliner, and the mechanics also were indicted for illegal transportation of hazardous materials.

The three men could face up to 55 years in prison each and fines as high as $2.7 million, if convicted.

The company also is charged with causing placement of destructive devices on an aircraft under a law intended to attack terrorism.

A 12-member jury will be asked to decide whether the tasks of line mechanics and the pressures for a quick turnaround on simple chores led to the crash and should translate to a criminal conviction.

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King placed the case on a fast track, setting the trial to begin just five months after the indictment. King hopes to have the jury picked quickly from a pool of 60 people despite widespread media coverage.

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