BRIEFLY: AVIATION : FAA’s Haz-Mat Effort: Work in Progress

Despite tougher safety measures instituted by federal regulators after the ValuJet crash three years ago, hazardous materials are still making their way aboard the nation’s airliners. The fiery ValuJet crash that killed 110 people in Florida’s Everglades was blamed on oxygen generators that exploded in the cargo hold. Now banned on passenger flights, the generators have flown or been intercepted at least 20 times since the crash. Since the ValuJet crash, the biggest change was a requirement proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration more than a year later to add fire detection and suppression equipment to older planes by 2001. But halfway to the deadline, industry records show, only 11% of the nation’s passenger fleet has been converted. On the plus side, a new force of 140 FAA inspectors and lawyers is working exclusively on haz-mat enforcement, and shippers are under scrutiny for the first time. Also, fines proposed by the FAA for haz-mat violations are up from $2.3 million in 1994 to $19.6 million in 1998.