valujet scenario. >> go ahead, mary. >> well, as i said, in the valujet scenario, they didn't get theirurns out that the pilots weren't adequately trained. it's not the pilots' fault, they didn't have the training. but other situations where they haven't been able to get the masks on. les is so right. it's all in the training. know where it is, how to get it on and how important to do that. so it all comes back to basically how well were they trained, if they had an emergency, how well were they trained to do it? >> treinteresting, as paul said. pre-planning, looking for the black boxeses listening for the blacks boxes. you may have a check list were training. when it actually happens, you know what? and you don't know what's going to happen. >> that's right. that's right. when the real event happens, you just try not to panic, to be calm and to go through whatever procedures you've been trained. this is just a function of how well you've been trained. how experienced you are. >> yeah. >> we call it muscle memory. >> muscle memory. yeah. all right. you guys are amazing. thank you so muc

. >> reporter: valujet flight 592 from miami to atlanta, the day before mother's day 1996, the pilotsx minutes in to the flight. >> return to miami. >> what kind of problem? >> smoke in the cabin. >> the pilots head to the nearest airport. meanwhile, passengers are yelling about a fire. the aircraft rolls on its side and then crashes nose nose first in to the florida everglades killing all 110 people on board. the ntsb determined the fire began in a cargo compartment. >> if we have fire detection system the crew would have been afforded more time to get the plane on the ground. >> reporter: the faa took those words to heart and as a result revised standards for cargo requiring smoke detectors and automatic fire extinguishers in cargo holds. >> we are on a mayday. we're going down. >> reporter: fire was also a problem in 1983 when care canada flight 797 made an emergency landing at cincinnati's airport on the way from dallas to the toronto. it had a fire in the bathroom. >> we have a fire in the back washroom. we're filling up with smoke right now. >> reporter: incredibly the plane lan

you look at valujet. from the time they reported fire, electrical in the cockpit, in the cabin until the time they crashed, you're talking minutes. less than 20 minutes. they also had time to communicate. they announce wed have a fire. we have smoke. this plane had nothing. more importantly, more importantly here, if it looks like a snake, it moves like a snake, it is a snake. you look at the profile of this airplane from the time it took off from kuala lumpur. i hear richard in the background. all the key points, the climb back, the climb to 39,000 feet, the back and forth, the around the northern hip of indonesia. this is an intentional, deliberate act. it is clearly nefarious in my mind. we just don't by who. >> i love how you both have given very credible, thoughtful explanations for both sides. richard, i want to get back to your interview, though, briefly. obviously president obama is arriving in malaysia tomorrow. first president to go in 48 years. but honestly, people are thinking oh, obama is goi

in 1996, hazardous cargo on valujet flight 592 caught fire. >> what kind of problem are you having?e cockpit, smoke in the cabin. >> the plane crashed in the florida everglades. 110 people died. it led to new cargo hold safety rules. but not finding flight 370 or its data recorders could be a missed opportunity for change. >> whatever brought down that flight, whether it was fire, hijacked, pilot suicide, explosive decompression, a. bo, whatever, it's important to find that out so that we can fix it so it doesn't happen again. >> reporter: and it's security too. the september 11th hijacks led to strengthened cockpit doors. the shoe bomber led to shoe checks. >> unfortunately, we've had a history of sort of graveyard policy making. you wait until enough people die and then you make a change. >> reporter: with so few crashes in recent years, the faa is more proactive in finding problems that could cause crashes before they happen. now with malaysia airlines flight 370, there could be lessons to be learned, but only if they find out what went wrong. one example of why finding hard evid