The crash of Flight 592 in 1996 , which was caused by illegally stored hazardous materials on board , spelled doom for the airline . ValuJet was grounded the next month and not allowed to fly again until September , with a greatly reduced fleet . The airline 's major customers never returned and the company suffered major losses . In 1997 , the airline ’s parent holding company purchased the much smaller regional airline holding company Airways Corporation , the holding company for AirTran Airways . ValuJet ’s fleet and operations were transferred to AirTran in 1998 and ValueJet was merged into AirTran Airways in 1999 . However for years after the merger , it was thought that ValuJet was the nominal survivor , changing its name to AirTran Airways due to the ValuJet management running the airline . AirTran was purchased by Southwest Airlines in 2011 and ended flights in 2014
crash of Flight 592
ValuJet Flight 592
ValuJet Airlines