Religious leaders offered healing words in four languages for family members of the 110 victims of the ValuJet crash, but they failed to blunt the anger that families still feel over the crash a year later.
Family members at a memorial service lashed out at everyone from the Federal Aviation Administration to the workers who loaded oxygen canisters believed to have fueled a fire that brought down Flight 592 last Mother's Day weekend."My son died because of greed from people who have no respect for other people's lives," Carmen Roberts said Sunday. "Mother's Day will never be the same."
President Clinton sent a short note to the families promising government action to prevent a similar tragedy.
The Rev. Warren Latham, who lost his son, said he has seen little action so far.
"All of us are appalled with the way our government - particularly the FAA - has failed to make any (changes) since our loved ones died," he said.
Latham said he wasn't sympathetic to industry concerns about the high cost of equipping each plane with smoke-detection equipment.
"Any of us would have gladly found $120,000 to save our loved ones from this tragedy," he said. "This crash didn't have to occur."
A raging fire in the front cargo hold brought down the ValuJet DC-9 on May 11, 1996, on its way from Atlanta to Miami, killing everyone aboard.
Investigators believe oxygen canisters, illegally packed and mislabeled by the airline's maintenance contractor, SabreTech, started or fueled the blaze. ValuJet loaded the canisters. ValuJet, based in Atlanta, and Phoenix-based SabreTech, each deny blame in the crash.
Meanwhile, nine colleagues of the federal inspector in charge of checking repairs on the ValuJet fleet felt he lacked sufficient civilian aircraft experience, a government watchdog said.
The April 3 report contained statements from nine Federal Aviation Administration inspectors, who said David J. Harper was unqualified to properly oversee ValuJet maintenance.
The inspectors told investigators that Harper was unfamiliar with aircraft operations, didn't understand terminology and admitted he was "in over his head," The Plain Dealer reported Sunday. Four inspectors said they told supervisors of the problem, the Cleveland newspaper reported.