If I remember correctly, ValuJet (of Atlanta) purchased AirTran Airlines (of Orlando) and renamed ValuJet as AirTran Airways. They operated two companies with the same name for a little while and eventually merged the two under the same AirTran Airways banner.

Brian,

There is a search panel on the home page. Search for the article titled, "Air Safety Online: In Depth: Air Tran 956-Fire in the Sky". Particularly disturbing is the information toward the end of the article.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm looking more at what type of aircraft the flight is on. I know it is no guarantee (wouldn't have helped in V.J. crash, for instance) but we won't fly any old models anymore. Generally they are bought off a more mainstream airine by a start-up or budget airline, and re-habbed. And do these budget airlines have good or enough mechanics that can repair and maintain them properly? We were booking a trip to Hawaii on Pleasant Hawaii Holidays (newish charter flying direct to Hawaii from Chicago) at an excellent price, around Christmastime, no less, when we saw that they were flying a Lockheed plane!! Haven't been making them for years! We stopped right there and changed to American (not non-stop, however) on a 757. As I said, no guarantees, but we felt better! BTW, we paid for it, as well!

Just to add a note or two. I believe your scenario about VJ and ATA is correct ... I now see ATA landing at Reagan National every few minutes. About five years ago the DOT Inspector General wrote a scathing report about FAA's ineptitude. She testified before Congress over a 2-3 year period. She was not supported by the DOT Secretary ... she was undercut by the DOT senior management. She was eventually hounded out of DOT, but not before she had established a very good record of the problems at FAA. I must tell you that FAA was a disgrace. And a dangerous accomplice, at least that is my opinion. At this time, Congress claims it has tried to take the politics out of FAA .. the FAA administrator now holds her position for five years. If you want to get a sense of the VJ crash, visit the NTSB website and check up on their VJ investigation and the voice recoder record. Under Chairman Hall, NTSB attempted to do professional investigations and call them like they saw them. VJ is certainly not blameless, and I would suggest that the belief the name change saved them as a company may be quite beside the point ... what argument was given at the time for their continuing? They were grossly stupid in relying on uneducated people of another firm to decide what to stow in their cargo holds. The pilots of that doomed plane must have wondered what the hell was happening.

I would have written my real email name but after 2 1/2 years on this board trying to help people,etc.-received a virus that was obviously sent from one of the fodors forum people.(This has been a super place to meet fellow travelers and swap opinions and insights so what has happened?)
Anyway-my husband(767 captain) and myself(flight attendant) with 29 and 28 years respectively WOULD NOT SEND A UPS
PACKAGE ON AIR TRAN!!!!Please realize that Air Tran is just repackaged and is still having violations. There are times to go cut rate and then there are times to decide how much you want to play "russian roulette". For those of you who say that flying any major carrier is russian roulette-think again! Experience,accountability and great mechanics are the difference.

Melody,

We have two close friends, one an AA pilot and one a UPS pilot, who concur. As they say, you get what you pay for. My guess is that you're not paying for meticulous maintenance. As one poster suggests, depending on the airline, we avoid flying on old aircraft. In the article that originally started this discussion, one of the issues cited is the age of AT's fleet. That, plus lax upkeep and maintenance are a formula for disaster.

melody and others in the airline industry.

Friends of friends or family who work for the airlines get "Buddy" tickets that allow them free to nominal (e.g., $25) tickets on a standby/available basis.

How does that work at Continental. Other carriers. I heard each employee gets 2 buddy tickets per month; they can be given to anyone.

What is your carriers policy?

interesting discussion

To those of you who think that working for an airline nowdays is a deal-think again! We get on after everyone else(including the visa free miles,etc.).Our airline is always full so my family and I haven't really been anywhere since last summer. As far as buddy passes-at our airline we get only a few a year and they still cost quite alot(so much a mile)and you are
still flying space available. I think the following story sums up travel benefits:
I had to go take my son for a college visit this past fall-We had to pay $198.00 each for what they call an ID90 (it was also space available so we did not know if we could even get on till the last minute). We got to the college and found out that a"regular" person got
on priceline for the same route and paid
$139.00 a
ticket on the same airline and she knew she had a seat for sure.Enough said!

As a final note, you may access the following site which presents comprehensive data on ValuJet Flight 592: Http://www.flight592.com/welcome.htm.

At that site, if you access the NTSB final report on the crash of 592, look at conclusion #38 on page 133, where the NTSB concluded that ValuJet's failure to properly supervise the firm that loaded the oxydizer cannisters aboard the doomed jet was a factor in causing the crash. This is only one in a very long list of conclusions. This is not to suggest that this was the only flaw. The year after the crash (which occurred May 11, 1996), ValuJet ceased to exist, as it merged with AirTran on September 24, 1997. The AirTran corporate history does not include any information about their prior existence. Another corporate success story perhaps?

i like cheese

Bringing this up again because of the recent posts regarding AirTran (formerely ValuJet)

I rarely fly, but when I do, I only use USAirways. I come from a major hub city of theirs (Pittsburgh) and I feel safe on this airline. I will never get on one of the many small carriers.

Well thanks people. We're flyin air-tran in May from Philly to Tampa and I'm not cancelling again. Had to cancel last Sept. after the attacks. I'm just hoping we're on the newer planes, with no cargo.