FBI: Mechanic wanted in 1996 ValuJet crash had Atlanta ties

ATLANTA -- The FBI has announced a $10,000 reward for an airline mechanic with Atlanta ties alleged to have played a role in the 1996 crash of a ValuJet plane in the Florida Everglades.

Mauro Ociel Valenzuela-Reyes, who worked for the airline's maintenance contractor, SabreTech, faces federal criminal charges after crash investigators determined he mishandled oxygen generators that authorities say burst into flames in the cargo hold of the Atlanta-bound DC-9.

The plane nosedived into the Everglades minutes after taking off from Miami International Airport on May 11, 1996, killing all 105 passengers and five crew members.

Valenzuela-Reyes, whose ex-wife and children lived in Atlanta around the time of the crash, faced up to 55 years in prison when he fled before trial. He is believed to be living with his family in Santiago, Chile, under an assumed name, according to the FBI. A new wanted poster that shows a photo of the suspect from 1996 and how he might look today has also been released.

"We've tried over the years to find him," said FBI Miami Special Agent Jacqueline Fruge, who has been on the case since the beginning. "It bothers me. I've lived and breathed it for many, many years."

If captured, Valenzuela-Reyes would face charges related to the crash and additional federal charges, including contempt of court, for fleeing and failing to appear at his trial.

The other mechanic charged in the case, Eugene Florence, was cleared in 1999 of eight hazardous materials charges. U.S. District Judge Lawrence King ruled that prosecutors failed to prove Florence recklessly caused the shipping of oxygen generators blamed for fueling the cargo fire.

A federal investigation concluded that SabreTech employees misclassified the flammable canisters as being defused. The chemical reaction that generates oxygen can reach temperatures of 500 degrees.

Four minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, passengers started to smell smoke, according to the NTSB investigation of the crash. The pilots had noticed the plane was losing electrical power at the same time, which, it was later determined, was a result of the tire exploding in the cargo hold. Passengers can be heard shouting "fire, fire, fire" on the cockpit voice recorder.

With smoke filtering into the cockpit and cabin, the pilots began to turn the plane back to Miami, the NTSB report stated. Ten minutes after takeoff, eyewitnesses watched the plane plummet into the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in the Everglades at a speed in excess of 507 miles per hour.

Fruge recalled video shot in the hours after the crash capturing shoes floating in the swamp and surrounding sawgrass. "It just went to pieces," she said of the plane.

Recovery efforts were complicated by alligators and the risk that cuts from the sawgrass would become infected. Fruge said she asked victims' families to provide personal effects that might contain latent fingerprints that could be compared to remains found at the scene. A young mother was identified through a baby album while a playbook's fingerprints helped ID a football player who perished.

Christian Boone writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Email: cboone(at)ajc.com.

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