ValuJet buying AirTran - and taking its name

After more than a year of reminding too many people of a disaster rather than low fares, ValuJet said it would take a new name.

ValuJet is buying a much smaller airline, AirTran Airways, for $66.3 million worth of stock and taking its name. ValuJet's cartoon character of a smiling airplane will be wiped off its 30 planes and replaced with AirTran's name and rising-sun logo.The May 11, 1996, crash into the Florida Everglades killed all 110 people aboard and forever tarnished ValuJet's name. As a young airline that was the target of scrutiny for growing too fast, shaking the crash's stigma was more difficult than for other carriers.