PASSENGERS SCREAM `FIRE' ON VALUJET CRASH TAPE.

Byline: Catherine Wilson Associated Press 

Passengers screamed ``Fire! Fire! Fire!'' and a flight attendant warned, ``We can't get oxygen back there'' during the final terrifying moments before ValuJet Flight 592 plunged into the Everglades, killing all 110 people aboard.

The chilling eight-minute tape from the cockpit voice recorder ends with the cockpit and cabin falling silent, leaving the sound of rushing air, perhaps from a cockpit window that had been opened to let the smoke out.

A transcript of the recording was released Monday as a hearing opened on the mistakes that led to the May 11 crash. Federal investigators believe that 144 oxygen-generating canisters carried in the DC-9's cargo hold either ignited or fueled a fire.

Six minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport, the pilot can be heard telling the co-pilot: ``We got some electrical problems. . . . We're losing everything.''

A few seconds later, the voice recorder picked up screams of passengers in the cabin, including several women shouting, ``Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!''

Over the next 51 seconds, shouts were heard from the cabin twice more and a flight attendant said only, ``Completely on fire'' before the cabin fell silent. The last recorded voice from the plane was that of a crew member telling the tower, ``We need the, uh, closest airport available.''

The plane crashed 2 minutes 22 seconds later.

While the flight attendant warned that passengers could not get oxygen, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith said there was not enough information to say what may have happened to the oxygen masks that drop down in front of passengers during an emergency.

At the hearing, testimony and court documents focused on alleged blunders by a ValuJet subcontractor, SabreTech Corp., in the handling of the oxygen canisters, which were being flown as cargo. In many planes, the canisters are installed over the seats and supply oxygen to the emergency masks.

A stock clerk didn't know what oxygen generators were but weighed five boxes of them and labeled them for shipment to ValuJet's headquarters in Atlanta, the documents said.

Shipping caps are supposed to be installed on the canisters to prevent them from activating by accident, but none were requested by SabreTech mechanics, the documents showed.

SabreTech President Steven Townes defended his company's work, saying mechanics believed they had disabled the triggering mechanisms of the canisters before they were packed.

But Townes acknowledged that federal investigators uncovered many flaws in how SabreTech handled the canisters.