The FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for help in locating Mauro Ociel Valenzuela-Reyes, a fugitive wanted in connection with the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades.
The FBI’s Miami field office published a wanted poster Thursday that includes an image of Valenzuela-Reyes taken in 1996, together with depictions of how he may look today.
“The mechanic, Mauro Ociel Valenzuela-Reyes, worked for the airline’s maintenance contractor, SabreTech,” the FBI notice said. “He was facing federal criminal charges in 1999 after crash investigators determined he had a role in the mishandling and packaging of oxygen generators that were placed in the DC-9’s cargo hold. The generators, which were missing their required safety caps, ignited in the cargo area, causing the crash that killed all 110 passengers and crew members aboard.”
Although charged, he has managed to escape justice.
“He fled before trial,” FBI Miami Special Agent Jacqueline Fruge said, according to the Miami Herald. Fruge has been the lead agent on the case from the beginning.
ValuJet Flight 592 lifted off from Miami International Airport on May 11, 1996, en route to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Before leaving Florida airspace, the pilot reported a fire in the cargo area.
Shortly afterward and before the aircraft could return to Miami, it plunged into the Everglades.
Valenzuela-Reyes also faces federal charges for fleeing and failing to appear at his trial. According to the FBI, he has connections to Santiago, Chile, where he has family, as well as Atlanta, where his ex-wife and children have lived.
“We’ve tried over the years to find him,” Fruge said in the media release. “It bothers me. I’ve lived and breathed it for many, many years.”
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