MUCK SWALLOWS JETLINER, BODIES : SWAMP CRASH CONFOUNDS EXPERTS.

Byline: Michael Rezendes The Boston Globe

The tragedy of 109 lives lost when a ValuJet airliner crashed Saturday into Everglades National Park was rivaled only by the mystery and awe expressed Sunday over the fate of the DC-9, which disappeared almost completely beneath the muck and mire of the desolate swamp about 15 miles northwest of Miami.

Local rescue workers called off the search for survivors of the Atlanta-bound flight early Sunday afternoon - after finding only small bits of clothing, a scrapbook and pieces of the aircraft - declaring that conditions made it impossible to continue.

``It's a very difficult situation because the water has covered the entire area,'' said U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena after viewing the site. ``It's going to be a technically very difficult operation. We don't know where major parts of the airplane are.''

With families of the victims arriving for a Mother's Day of mourning - all on board the aircraft are presumed dead - federal transportation officials inspected the crash site by helicopter and later said they would consult with the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers before determining how to proceed.

Pena, who spoke with reporters briefly before meeting families of the victims, also maintained that ValuJet, a discount airline with a record of recent mishaps, had complied with Federal Aviation Administration standards after a rigorous review in February.

``I have flown ValuJet. ValuJet is a safe airline, as is our entire system,'' Pena said. ``We have established a goal of zero accidents. Obviously, we have much more work to do.''

The FAA announced Sunday it will launch an intensified review of ValuJet's safety and maintenance starting today.

FAA Associate Administrator Anthony J. Broderick said a seven-day checkup on the airline scheduled for the following week has been moved up and will be extended to a full month.

Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, announced that investigators have recovered the plane's two engines, which were partially exposed in 2 to 3 feet of water. Francis also said control tower tapes show ``a considerable sense of urgency on the part of the pilot who was speaking to the controller.''

Francis said investigators hope to find the plane's flight data recorder because wreckage with blue paint believed to be part of the tail has been found, which would contain the so-called ``black box.''

Navy personnel expected to arrive Monday will use sonar to try picking up the radio signal emitted by the box.

Officials said they believe the ValuJet airliner nose-dived into the swamp some 15 minutes into its flight Saturday afternoon after pilots reported smoke in the cockpit and cabin and completed a U-turn in a failed attempt to return to Miami International Airport.

Searchers, who said their first priority is finding bodies, were also looking for the black box. The wreckage of the plane is believed to be submerged under waist-high water and layers of sawgrass and mud - estimated to be up to 40 feet thick in places. When rescue workers stopped their search around noon, temperatures were in the mid-80s.

``If they're out of here before two weeks, I'll be surprised,'' said Metro-Dade Police Detective Ed Munn.

Earlier Sunday, ValuJet President Lewis Jordan expressed sympathy for families of the victims - and insisted his airline is safe and his pilots sufficiently experienced.

``Every human being in every seat of the airplane is a life and a loved one with stories to tell, with friends, with places to go,'' Jordan said. ``It's Mother's Day weekend, we know that.''

Jordan's discount airline, based in Atlanta, has had at least three accidents since it began operations in 1993. The most recent was a serious runway fire last year that destroyed a plane in Atlanta.

FAA records show that the airliner that crashed here Saturday had returned to airports seven times over the past two years because of maintenance problems, from an oil leak to loss of cabin pressure. It also had a thorough annual inspection in October and a routine inspection four days before the crash.

Jordan said he couldn't confirm the records, but added, ``If ValuJet had any reason to believe one of our airliners was unsafe, we would voluntarily ground it.'' He added, ``I can assure you that the FAA, if it had any reason to believe it was unsafe, they would ground it.''

Flight 592's pilot, Candalyn Kubeck of Bedford, Texas, had nearly 9,000 hours of flight time, including 2,073 hours with ValuJet and 1,697 as a captain with the airline, officials said.

Pena, speaking with reporters here, said the FAA, concerned about ValuJet's rapid growth and accident record, began increased inspections of the airline in February, and that ValuJet had cooperated with all FAA requests.

The Everglades, a vast and unpopulated expanse of swamp covering much of southern Florida, is home to alligators, poisonous snakes and other wildlife and is in many places accessible only by airboat.

As if that weren't trouble enough, divers Sunday were forced to don protective rubber suits after encountering aviation fuel and hydraulic fluid. They searched the muck by hand, unable to see more than a few inches in front of them, and in almost every case found nothing.

Investigators and searchers, even after finding victims of the crash and major portions of the plane, will be hard-pressed to recover the wreckage.

The airliner is believed to have crashed more than 300 yards from the nearest road or dry ground, which will make it extremely difficult to retrieve.

Officials said Sunday they were considering a number of strategies, including building a road to the crash site and constructing a circular dam that might allow salvagers to drain the water from around the plane.

Local sportsmen in the area said they were not surprised that the airliner seemed to have been sucked completely into the swamp's murky depths.

``Anything that weighs as much as a DC-9 and dives in there at a 75-degree angle is going to disappear,'' said Troy Brannen, a local airboat operator who also works as a drainage-well driller for the Florida Department of Transportation. ``Think about kicking a tin can into some deep mud - that's what happened to that airplane.''

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Photo

PHOTO Dade County coroner's vans return from the ValuJet cr ash area along an Everglades levee Saturday.

Associated Press