<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Andy2:
Isn't everyone forgetting thar Airtran is quickly coverting their fleet to 717s, which appear to be excellent, safe airplanes.</font>
A B717 is a newer version of the DC9. The DC9 is an excellent, safe airplane. Other airlines operate large fleets of DC9s, many as old as the ones valujet/airtran flies, with accident/incident rates significantly lower than valujet/airtran's.