Investigators search for clues in deadly Alaska Airlines crash
No survivors among the 88 passengers and crew
By Jeff Wilson
Associated Press Writer
OXNARD, Calif.— Investigators trying to
learn why an Alaska Airlines jet with 88 people plunged into the Pacific said on Tuesday
they have recovered four bodies and heard "pinging" from the ocean, apparently
from the aircraft's flight recorders.
Officials hope data from the so-called "black boxes" could
provide key clues to Monday's crash of the MD-83 jetliner, including whether the airliner
was brought down because of problems with a device that's supposed to stabilize the plane.
"That is obviously a prime lead and a prime finding that will be
followed," said Coast Guard Vice Adm. Tom Collins
No survivors have been found.
No Idaho-based crew members were among the crash victims, according to a
list carried by the Associated Press.
Names—but not home towns—were on a passenger list released by
the news service on Tuesday
Boise is one of the cities served by the airline, which flies to five
Western states, Alaska, Canada and Mexico.
Collins said the bodies recovered were those of an infant, two women and a
man. He said the rescue mission would continue "until I determine there are no
survivors.
"This is still a search for human life. The decision to stop
searching is mine, mine to make, and it's a difficult one," Collins said during a
news conference. "The challenge is time, as time ticks off, risks go up.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard ships, Navy vessels and a private boat combed the
choppy sea about 10 miles off the Southern California coast for debris that could help
explain what caused the jetliner to crash. Before daylight, a 10-member team from the
National Transportation Safety Board in Washington arrived at the scene to take over the
investigation.
Monday night, commercial squid boats used nets to haul in a grim reminder
of lives lost: a tennis shoe, a stuffed animal and a number of small souvenirs from
Mexico. A stench of jet fuel hung in the air as the nets were pulled to the surface.
Flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle hit
the water at 4:36 p.m. Monday in what a witness described as a nose dive. The weather was
clear at the time.
Moments before the crash, one of the two pilots radioed that he was having
trouble with "stabilizer trim" and asked to be diverted to Los Angeles for an
emergency landing, airline spokesman Jack Evans said.
The plane fell 17,000 feet before being lost from radar screens officials
said. It crashed into an area 10 miles offshore in water 300 feet to 750 feet deep.
The flight was normal until the crew reported control problems, said a
source with close knowledge of the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Radar showed the plane, an MD-83, plummeting toward the sea shortly afterward.
On MD-80 series airplanes, the horizontal stabilizer looks like a small
wing mounted on top of the tail. The stabilizer, which includes panels that pitch the nose
up and down, is brought into balance, or "trimmed," from the cockpit.
If a plane loses its horizontal stabilizer, there is no way to keep the
nose pointed to the proper angle, and the aircraft will begin a uncontrollable dive.
Evans said the plane had no previous stabilizer problems, and Federal
Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes said it had never been in an accident.
A National Park Service ranger on Anacapa Island, off the coast of Oxnard,
saw the airliner go down and was first to report it, said spokeswoman Susan Smith at the
Channel Islands National Park headquarters Ventura Harbor.
"He observed a jet going down in the Santa Barbara Channel. From his
observation it was nose first," Smith said
There were 83 passengers and five crew members aboard, Evans said. Thirty
two were bound for San Francisco, 47 for Seattle, three were continuing on to Eugene,
Ore., and one to Fairbanks, Alaska. The two pilots were based in Los Angeles and the three
flight attendants were based in Seattle.
The passengers included three airline employees, four employees of sister
airline Horizon and 23 relatives or friends of the employees
Both pilots were Alaska Airlines veterans. Capt. Ted Thompson, 53, was
hired Aug. 16, 1982, and had 10,400 flying hours with the company. First Officer William
Tansky, 57, was hired July 17, 1985, and had 8,047 flying hours with the Seattle-based
airline.
AP writer Glen Johnson contributed to this
report.
