The stabilizer on the MD-80 series rests on top of the tail, and like all airliners, it can move up and down to adjust the pitch angle at which the plane is stable. The outcomes of wrongful death suits against Alaska filed by the victims families are unknown, but it has been reported that the airline eventually settled with the families out of court for a total of at least $300 million, all of which was covered by insurance. Ultimately, the pilots chose to divert. Many of Alaskas maintenance workers received on the job training only without any formal curriculum. Did maintenance errors cause the tragic crash?Subscribe to WONDER to watch more documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/WonderDocsRevealing the dark truth that aviation safety improves one crash at a time, Mayday investigates legendary aviation disasters to find out what went wrong and why.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewonderchannel/Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWonderChannelWONDER is packed with binge worthy reality documentaries for hours of entertainment. In 1991, after posting a record loss of $121 million, the companys business analysts concluded that to remain competitive, Alaska Airlines needed to reduce expenses. Finally, the Safety Board also felt that there were lessons to be learned from the actions of the pilots. Over the next couple minutes, the pilots found the plane to be reasonably stable at lower speeds. The internal acme nut threads are 1/8-inch thick and are designed to wear out and be replaced. Instead it went the other way., What do you think. The anger he must have felt is difficult to fathom. The lead mechanic that day was John Liotine, a rare Alaska Airlines employee who still took safety seriously. So theyre trying to put pressure on you, said Tansky. The FAAs special inspection report noted that the position of Director of Maintenance had gone unfilled since 1998; the Director of Operations position was empty; the Director of Safety was also the Director of Quality Control and the Director of Training and didnt report to high-level management; there was no maintenance training curriculum; on-the-job training was completely unstructured; the procedures in use didnt match those outlined in the maintenance manual; planes had been released from C-checks with paperwork incomplete; perishable and consumable materials had expired; shift turnover paperwork was missing, unsigned, or incomplete; work cards were not filled out properly; and more the list went on and on. We noticed a lot of differences. In fact, by now there were several other airplanes in the area that were keenly watching the unfolding situation. The airline extended numerous maintenance intervals, while simultaneously skimping on personnel and training. Instead, all they could find was an oil slick and some light floating debris. Within the next several minutes the pilots expected to pass abeam Los Angeles off the coast, and they were strongly considering a diversion to LAX, given that none of their troubleshooting had fixed the problem. ?On January 31, 2000, about 1621 Pacific standard time, Alaska Airlines, Inc., flight 261, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, N963AS, crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California. [6] The captain replied: "I need to get down to about ten, change my configuration, make sure I can control the jet and I'd like to do that out here over the bay if I may. alaska airlines flight 261 pilot drunk - lindoncpas.com Subsequent DNA testing proved these claims to be false. By carefully measuring the divot, we could accurately determine the wear rates for each type of grease and also the rate from using no grease. They had no way of knowing at this stage that the problem was mechanical in nature. [11] Of the passengers, one was Mexican and one was British, with all others being U.S. It is clear is that the events of January 31, 2000, forever changed Alaska Airlines, making it a different airline than the one that existed on that day. [6]:162165, For this design component to be approved ("certified") by the FAA without any fail-safe provision, a failure had to be considered "extremely improbable". The park's playground was named "Rachel's Playground", in memory of six-year-old Rachel Pearson, who was on board the MD-83[18] and who was often seen playing at the park. With the jackscrew completely separated from the nut, aerodynamic forces acting on the stabilizer pushed it up beyond the normal full nose down position, halting only when the mechanical stop on the bottom of the jackscrew slammed into the nut. Gotta get it over again said Thompson. You have the airplane. In 1998, fed up with a maintenance environment that did not seem to prioritize safety, John Liotine blew the whistle and alerted the FAA to some of Alaskas numerous violations. Almost all of these recommendations were implemented. Upon subsequent examination, the jackscrew was found to have metallic filaments wrapped around it, which were later determined to be the remains of the acme-nut thread. The metal from which the jackscrew is made is ever so slightly harder than the metal used in the nut. The investigation concluded, "FAA surveillance of Alaska Airlines had been deficient for at least several years". The following is a list of some of the victims of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Lives would have been saved if they had. But there was nothing to be done. Push and roll! [27], In 1998, an Alaska Airlines mechanic named John Liotine, who worked in the Alaska Airlines maintenance center in Oakland, California, told the FAA that supervisors were approving records of maintenance that they were not allowed to approve or that indicated work had been completed when, in fact, it had not. But the measurements were imprecise and repeated tests often produced different results allowing a certain amount of ambiguity as to whether the value was over or under the limit. He ordered it replaced, but the plane was back in service a few days later with the worn assembly. According to the official maintenance manual, greasing the jackscrew involved three main steps. This past January, to honor the victims of flight 261 on its 20th anniversary, hundreds of family members, friends and loved ones came together in Ventura around the Memorial Sundial constructed after the crash. As such, it is critically important that the jackscrew be kept in good working order, primarily through the liberal application of grease at regular intervals. How the crash changed Alaska Airlines | The Seattle Times Stepping on the rudder pedals while upside down was no easy task. Were gonna stay up here and burn a little more gas, get all our ducks in a row, and then well be talking to LAX when we start down to go in there. The plan was to stay on course a little longer, burning fuel to reduce their landing weight and test out the planes handling capabilities, before turning around and heading into Los Angeles. [6], Alaska 261 informed air traffic control (ATC) of their control problems. Mechanical stops attached to the jackscrew prevent the stabilizer from moving farther than 2.5 degrees upward or 12.5 degrees downward. On every level, it was a tragedy that did not need to happen and to this day, it serves as a grim example of the depths to which an airline may fall when oversight becomes too thinly stretched. 43:44. Flight 261 was on its way from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco when a mechanical failure caused it to plunge into the ocean, killing all 88 people on board. The aircraft leveled off at the assigned altitude of 31,000 feet. Three seconds later, the fairing failed, and the stabilizer swung unimpeded on its hinge to a position of at least 14 degrees aircraft nose down. Sometime before 15:49 (23:49 UTC), the flight crew contacted the airline's dispatch and maintenance-control facilities in SeaTac, Washington, on a company radio frequency shared with operations and maintenance facilities at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), to discuss a jammed horizontal stabilizer and a possible diversion to LAX. Navy. [6]:188189, After the crash, Alaska Airlines management said that it hoped to handle the aftermath in a manner similar to that conducted by Swissair after the Swissair Flight 111 accident. Refresh the page, check. The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and eventual failure of a critical flight control system during flight. The aircraft dives inverted into the Pacific Ocean, causing the death of all 88 on board. Ameet Prasad lost his younger brother and two cousins in the crash. [6], Due to the extreme impact forces, only a few bodies were found intact,[5] and none were visually identifiable. They wished to avoid the mistakes made by Trans World Airlines in the aftermath of the TWA Flight 800 accident, in other words, TWA's failure to provide timely information and compassion to the families of the victims. [21] One pilot radioed, "That plane has just started to do a big huge plunge." You got it? Planes inverted sir, a nearby pilot told the controller. The whole episode must have left him a bitter man although unlike most whistleblowers, he did manage to restart his career in the industry. As the NTSB investigation continued, so too did the criminal investigation and the saga of John Liotine. Thompson along with Captain Bill Tansky had just pulled out of an uncommanded dive from 31,000 feet to 23,000 feet. Uh, you getting full nose trim down but are you getting any you dont get no nose trim up, is that correct? maintenance asked. [15], Alaska Airlines Flight 261 departed from Puerto Vallarta's Licenciado Gustavo Daz Ordaz International Airport at 13:37 PST (21:37 UTC), and climbed to its intended cruising altitude of flight level310 (31,000 feet or 9,400m). The night shift subsequently performed the test five more times and measured a wear depth of approximately 0.84mm on each attempt. The Gulf of California stretched out below them, bright and blue. Both of these circumstances resulted from Alaska Airlines' attempts to cut costs. [6], A periodic maintenance inspection called an "end-play check" was used to monitor wear on the jackscrew assembly. Aviation accident over the Pacific Ocean in 2000, Inadequate lubrication and end-play checks, A block of altitudes assigned by ATC to allow altitude deviations. It was on board Alaska Airlines flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco on the 31st of January 2000 that this sequence of events that had been years in the making finally came to its terrifying conclusion. PLANE CRASH, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Pacific Ocean [25] Ultimately, the lack of lubrication of the acme-nut thread and the resultant excessive wear were determined to be the direct causes of the accident. The effect was immediate and catastrophic, as his inputs ripped out whatever threads remained on the jackscrew nut. What a hard way to die: so an airline can make more money., ________________________________________________________________. Fuck me!. Shortly after the accident, Liotine discovered that the jackscrew nut he had inspected in 1997 was not in fact replaced and had actually gone on to cause the crash. Keep in mind that the pitch of the stabilizer itself is actually inverse to the pitch of the airplane.). Alaska Airlines Flight 261 | Snopes.com Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash documentary - Cutting Corners Yes sir, he he hit the water, said the SkyWest pilot, his voice nearly cracking. Meanwhile, N963AS continued to fly, and maintenance workers continued to grease the jackscrew every eight months. Liotine began working with federal investigators by secretly audio recording his supervisors. Yeah, we are out of 26,000 feet, we are in a vertical dive not a dive yet, but uh, weve lost vertical control of our airplane., However, slowly but surely, Thompson and Tansky started to rein in their excessive speed and flatten out the slope of the dive. It was not designed to handle that kind of pressure, and over those ten minutes, it started to fracture. Yeah, no, said Thompson. It really wants to pitch down., Alaska two six one, said the controller, Say your condition?, Two six one, we are at 24,000 feet, kinda stabilized, said Thompson.