VALUJET PLANE'S CONTROL CABLES MAY HAVE LOCKED.

Byline: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Having found heavy fire damage to control cables on ValuJet Flight 592, federal investigators are considering this new, disturbing scenario: the DC-9's controls locked up as the jetliner went into a steep dive, and the pilots were unable to stop it.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that fire in the forward cargo hold could have melted metal fittings surrounding the control cables and jammed them. That fire was intense enough to melt aluminum seat frames in the passenger cabin, above the control cable system.

Another possibility: the cables, each made up of more than 100 stainless steel threads, could have been frayed by heat, resulting in loose strands getting tangled in the network of pulleys and bell cranks that guide cables to the wings and tail.

``You could fly that thing without hydraulics, but you couldn't fly it with cables jammed, melted and fused,'' said Wayne Williams, an internationally known air safety expert and former Eastern Airlines senior engineer.

Control problems are being considered more carefully because investigators have found little evidence that Flight 592's crew was incapacitated by toxic smoke.