On Thursday, FBI's Miami Field Office declared a $10, 000 prize to help locate an airline mechanic who may have had a role in the 1996 drive.
Ociel Valenzuela-Reyes, who proved helpful for the airline's maintenance contractor, SabreTech, was criminally charged in 1999 after he allegedly mishandled and packaged oxygen generators that were located in the plane's cargo space. Relating to the FBI, the generators didn't have security caps and ignited the cargo area.
But Valenzuela-Reyes never faced the charges.
"He fled before trial, " said FBI Arkansas Special Agent Jacqueline Fruge, who has been the primary agent on the situation since it began, in a news release.
Upon Thursday, the FBI declared the reward and distributed a brand new "Wanted" poster including photographs from 1996 and images showing how this individual may look today.
For more than 20 years, @FBIMiamiFL has been searching for Mauro Ociel Valenzuela-Reyes, a #fugitive airline mechanic who may have had a role in the fatal crash of a ValuJet Airlines passenger plane in the Florida Everglades in 1996. https://t.co/gdN5OrFxGEpic.twitter.com/qvXhgN15rA
— FBI (@FBI) April 5, 2018
Fruge, who has worked with the families of the victims over the years, said in the news release that they “want closure.”
On May 11, 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 took off from Miami International Airport heading to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported a fire in the cargo area.
Before it could return to MIA, the plane plunged into the Everglades.
According to the FBI, the investigation “proved challenging” because it was hard to identify the remains and the cause of the crash. Two other SabreTech employees were also charged in the criminal case, but were acquitted.
Valenzuela-Reyes, who also faces additional federal charges for fleeing and failing to appear at his trial, has connections to Atlanta, where his ex-wife and kids have lived, and Santiago, Chile, where he has family, according to the FBI.
“We’ve tried over the years to find him,” said Fruge, in the release. “It bothers me. I’ve lived and breathed it for many, many years.”