ATLANTA -- ValuJet, a 3-year-old airline that offers low fares and no frills, has been under government scrutiny because of its rapid growth and a rash of safety problems.

Until Saturday, none of those problems resulted in deaths. But the Atlanta airline, started three years ago with two aging DC-9 jets, has been under intense watch from the Federal Aviation Administration.

In February, the airline underwent a seven-day inspection, followed by a 120-day ``special emphasis inspection'' that is still under way.

ValuJet President Lewis Jordan said Saturday that the FAA launched the inspections because the airline "was growing so rapidly."

``The effect this is going to have is that we will be focused on what happened, on what our responsibility is,'' Jordan said at a news conference. ``If safety was a factor, we will take immediate action.''

The most serious incident before Saturday was an engine fire that destroyed a ValuJet DC-9 on the runway in Atlanta last June.

The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the fire to corrosion that was apparently covered over rather than repaired at a Turkish repair facility. ValuJet had purchased the planes from a Turkish airline.

That plane had been headed for Miami. Three flight attendants and four passengers were injured. One of the flight attendants was badly burned.

Among the incidents that prompted the FAA inspection were these:

• In February, the landing gear on a ValuJet plane collapsed in Nashville.
• In January, a hard landing extensively damaged a DC-9, also in Nashville.
• In January, a DC-9 got stuck in mud at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. The 101 passengers were bused to a terminal.
• Also in January, a ValuJet DC-9 with 30 people on board skidded off an icy runway at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, closing the airport for nearly three hours. No one was hurt.

Last month, ValuJet said it would voluntarily slow its growth this year in response to the FAA's concerns.

ValuJet operates 51 airplanes, mostly McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jets. Jordan said that, as a result of the slowdown, the airline will have 54 jets at the end of the year, rather than 58.

ValuJet said in April it was slowing growth ``in part, in response to increased FAA scrutiny and requirements . . . that resulted from recent incidents involving the company's aircraft.''

While the FAA has not disclosed any problems, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported recently that an FAA memo pointed to ``a significant decrease in the experience level of new pilots being hired by ValuJet as well as other positions such as mechanics, flight dispatchers, etc.''

Pembroke Pines aviation consultant Mike Clark cautioned Saturday that it is ``far too early to determine that the past incidents'' had any relationship to Saturday's crash.

Clark noted that ValuJet has been one of the airline industry's most successful startups, a pioneer of low-cost travel on the East Coast.

``ValuJet found a spot in the air transport industry and has filled it well,'' he said. ``Very few have done as well as ValuJet,'' keeping its formula simple and sustaining growth for three years, he said.

Despite its safety problems, ValuJet continued to attract passengers.

In April, ValuJet nearly doubled the size of its fleet. This month, the airline added service to New York's LaGuardia Airport, Mobile, and Fort Walton Beach, increasing its system to 31 cities in 19 states.

Clark said a startup carrier such as ValuJet could be hurt by the incident Saturday.

``For the big carriers, those that have been around with a track record, it would not be more than a glitch,'' he said. ``But leisure travelers who fly low-cost airlines tend to react more than business fliers, who realize that accidents are usually unique incidents.

``They would be less familiar with flying and more apt to react negatively than someone who flies all the time,'' Clark said.