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8 ValuJet crash victims' remains identified

Crews move beyond crash crater
in ValuJet recovery effort

equipment
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May 24, 1996
Web posted at: 3:15 p.m. EDT

MIAMI (CNN) -- A medical examiner has identified remains from eight victims of the ValuJet Flight 592 crash, according to the coroner.

Officials estimated they've recovered about 20 percent of the remains of the 110 people who were on board the DC-9 that crashed May 11 in the Florida Everglades.

There were no intact bodies found, they said. The eight victims were identified through tattoos, fingerprints, jewelry and dental records.

Everglades recovery crews were concentrating on an area southeast of the main crash site Friday in their efforts to retrieve large pieces of the wreckage.

Pat Cariseo, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading the search effort, said information gathered with ground-penetrating radar indicates there could be some large debris south of the impact point, the prior focus of recovery efforts.

Searchers are still looking for the voice cockpit recorder.

oxygen cannisters

Workers brought more heavy equipment into the area Friday, including a large platform, similar to those used for oil exploration, that will give workers a steady base in the marsh to use their earth-moving equipment.

Thursday, workers gathered 200 pieces of the aircraft and transported them from the Everglades to a hangar at the Tamiami Airport, where they are assembling a three-dimensional reconstruction of the forward cargo area of the DC-9. This area is where oxygen canisters, which may have contributed to the crash, were stored.

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall was planning to fly to Miami late Friday to view the site of the crash in which 110 people died. An NTSB briefing is planned for Sunday at the Tamiami Airport hangar.

Correspondents John Zarrella and Carl Rochelle contributed to this report.

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