What were the last words of Alaska Airlines Flight 261?
N963AS, the Alaska Airlines MD-83 aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 1992
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was an Alaska Airlines flight of a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January 31, 2000, roughly 2.7 miles (4.3 km; 2.3 nmi) north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, killing all 88 on board: 5 crew and 83 passengers. The flight was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport near San Francisco, California.
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 probable cause was stated to be “a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly’s Acme nut threads.” For their efforts to save the plane, both pilots were posthumously awarded the Air Line Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism.
The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, serial number 53077, and registered as N963AS. The MD-83 was a longer-range version of the original MD-80 (itself an improved version of the DC-9) with higher weight allowances, increased fuel capacity, and more powerful Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines. The aircraft had logged 26,584 flight hours and 14,315 cycles since it was delivered in 1992.
The pilots of Flight 261 were both highly experienced. Captain Ted Thompson, 53, had accrued 17,750 flight hours, and had more than 4,000 hours experience flying MD-80s. First Officer William “Bill” Tansky, 57, had accumulated 8,140 hours as first officer on the MD-80. Thompson had flown for Alaska Airlines for 18 years and Tansky for 15; neither pilot had been involved in an accident or incident prior to the crash. Both pilots lived in Greater Los Angeles area and had previous military experience — Thompson in the U.S. Air Force and Tansky in the U.S. Navy. Three Seattle-based flight attendants were also on board, completing the five-person crew.
The five crew members and 47 of the passengers on board the plane were bound for Seattle. Of the remaining passengers, 30 were traveling to San Francisco; three were bound for Eugene, Oregon; and three passengers were headed for Fairbanks, Alaska. Of the passengers, one was Mexican and one was British, with all others being U.S. citizens.
At least 35 occupants of Flight 261 were connected in some manner with Alaska Airlines or its sister carrier Horizon Air, including 12 people directly employed by the company. As is common practice among airlines, employees can sit in seats that.
What was the fatal plane crash in 2024?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is a list of significant events that occur in aviation in 2024.
The deadliest crash so far in 2024 is the crash of a Russian Ilyushin Il-76M on 24 January, with 74 people reportedly on board.
The deadliest crash of a commercial airliner flight occurred when an ATR 72 operating as Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed during approach to São Paulo on 9 August, killing all 62 passengers and crew on board.
Were bodies recovered from Alaska Airlines Flight 261?
N963AS, the Alaska Airlines MD-83 aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 1992
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was an Alaska Airlines flight of a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January 31, 2000, roughly 2.7 miles (4.3 km; 2.3 nmi) north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, killing all 88 on board: 5 crew and 83 passengers. The flight was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport near San Francisco, California.
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 probable cause was stated to be “a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly’s Acme nut threads.” For their efforts to save the plane, both pilots were posthumously awarded the Air Line Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism.
The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, serial number 53077, and registered as N963AS. The MD-83 was a longer-range version of the original MD-80 (itself an improved version of the DC-9) with higher weight allowances, increased fuel capacity, and more powerful Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines. The aircraft had logged 26,584 flight hours and 14,315 cycles since it was delivered in 1992.
The pilots of Flight 261 were both highly experienced. Captain Ted Thompson, 53, had accrued 17,750 flight hours, and had more than 4,000 hours experience flying MD-80s. First Officer William “Bill” Tansky, 57, had accumulated 8,140 hours as first officer on the MD-80. Thompson had flown for Alaska Airlines for 18 years and Tansky for 15; neither pilot had been involved in an accident or incident prior to the crash. Both pilots lived in Greater Los Angeles area and had previous military experience — Thompson in the U.S. Air Force and Tansky in the U.S. Navy. Three Seattle-based flight attendants were also on board, completing the five-person crew.
The five crew members and 47 of the passengers on board the plane were bound for Seattle. Of the remaining passengers, 30 were traveling to San Francisco; three were bound for Eugene, Oregon; and three passengers were headed for Fairbanks, Alaska. Of the passengers, one was Mexican and one was British, with all others being U.S. citizens.
At least 35 occupants of Flight 261 were connected in some manner with Alaska Airlines or its sister carrier Horizon Air, including 12 people directly employed by the company. As is common practice among airlines, employees can sit in seats tha”.
Were there any survivors on Alaska Flight 261?
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was an international passenger flight from Puerto Vallarta to a stopover in San Francisco International Airport, to its destination in Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft carrying 83 passengers and 5 crew members aboard. It suffered a serious mechanical failure caused by jackscrew on January 31, 2000, while flying over the Pacific Ocean, crashed into 4.3 km north of Anacapa Island in California. There are no survivors.
N963AS, the Alaska Airlines MD-83 aircraft involved in the accident
Flight 261 left Puerto Vallarta at 14:30 PST. While en-route to San Francisco, the crew became aware of a horizontal stabilizer jam and kept Alaska Airlines maintenance informed of the issue while airborne at FL310. Captain Tansky tried a solution to unjam the stabilizer. The stabilizer unjammed and the aircraft assumed an extreme nose down attitude. Both pilots applied back pressure to their controls and recovered from the dive at FL260. The flight crew contact Los Angeles ARTCC to tell them that they are descending through FL260.
At 16:11, ARTCC asked Flight 261 about their condition, and the flight crew notified them that they were trying to troubleshoot a jammed horizontal stabilizer. The crew then requested, and were granted an altitude block between 20,000 and 25,000 feet. They were then handed off to Los Angeles Center 5 minutes later, who they notified of their intentions to divert to Los Angeles International Airport and their troubles in maintaining their altitude. Flight 261 was then cleared to FL170 and the crew then requested another block of altitude. This was the last transmission from the plane.
Captain Tansky then commented on the plane’s tendency to want to pitch down. There were metallic thumping sounds and finally, the stabilizer gave way and the MD-83 pitched over violently, to which Captain Tansky replied, “this is a b*tch”. The aircraft rapidly begins to descend, and the MD-83 was seen ‘tumbling, spinning, nose down, continuous roll, corkscrewing and inverted’.
A pilot commented that “that plane has just started to do a big huge plunge”. While inverted, the engines experience multiple compressor stalls and likely failed, causing the aircraft’s rapid final descent. Just before 16:22 PST, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed inverted into the Pacific Ocean. None of 88 passengers and crew members aboard survived.
The aircraft, manufactured in 1992, had more than 26,000 flight hours at the time of the accident.
Among the 88 passengers were 12 employees of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, which led to a mourning on the part of the airline for those killed in this accident. Alaska Airlines stated that it was common for employees to occupy places that would otherwise go empty. Bouquets of flowers arrived at the airline’s headquarters in Seattle – Tacoma, Washington the next day. Due to the extreme efforts of the pilots to regain control.
How fast was flight 261 when hit the water?
On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, bound for Seattle, plunges into the Pacific Ocean 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, off the coast of California, killing all 88 passengers and crew. The flight originated in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and was bound for Seattle with an intermediate stop in San Francisco. Forty-seven of the passengers were headed to Seattle and three of the crew members were based in Seattle. Most of the other victims were bound for San Francisco. Captain Ted Thompson and First Officer William Tansky struggle to control the plane for at least a half an hour, while at times communicating via radio with Alaska Airlines maintenance center in Seattle, in an attempt to troubleshoot control problems with the McDonnell Douglas MD-83.
Investigation of the crash quickly focused issues surrounding the two-foot-long jackscrew — part of a system that drives adjustments to the horizontal stabilizer, which in turn controls the pitch, or up-and-down orientation, of the aircraft. While in flight, the MD-83 experienced a sudden, sharp dive. It was suspected that there was a problem with the horizontal stabilizer “trim.” After temporarily leveling out, pilots again lost control as they prepared the plane for an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. After this change in “configuration,” the plane entered an uncontrolled nosedive from 17,000 feet.
In December 2002, the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to lack of grease on the jackscrew. Insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew led to the stripping of the screw threads, causing the plane’s horizontal stabilizer to jam in a position that forced the plane into a drastic nose-down orientation. The board blamed both the airline for its maintenance practices and the Federal Aviation Administration for its failure to adequately oversee the carrier. The board also concluded that a contributing factor was the lack of a fail-safe mechanism to protect the MD-80 from a catastrophic loss of the jackscrew.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California investigated claims of fraudulent record-keeping and cover-up at an Alaskan Airlines maintenance center in Oakland, where Flight 261 was last serviced before the crash, but announced in August 2003 that it would not file any criminal charges.
Meanwhile, the airline and The Boeing Company (which acquired the McDonnell Corporation Corp. in 1997) settled 87 of 88 wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the crash. Financial details were sealed from public view, but lawyers said the settlements were among the largest ever in an air disaster, in part because of the safety board’s strongly worded report assigning blame, and partly because of the nature of the crash itself. Relatives of the victims were granted the right to receive so-called pre-impact compensation, covering the emotional as well as the physical injuries the passengers encountered as the plane nose-dived into the ocean. Negotiators pointed out that the .
What caused the Alaska plane crash?
On January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines flight 261, an MD-83, crashed into the Pacific Ocean; after airplane pitch control was lost as a result of the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly’s acme nut threads (NTSB, 2003). Accident investigation revealed a wide range of human, technical, and organizational factors contributing to this tragic event, providing a case where popular linear models and methods have difficulty addressing the full complexity of the processes leading up to the accident. This paper treats each of the steps of analysis according to the Functional Resonance Accident Model (FRAM; Hollnagel, 2004), a systemic non-linear modeling method, and discusses how functional resonance occurred through the variability in functions performed by joint human, technical, and organizational systems. It thereby aims to facilitate a better understanding of how functional variability in design, certification, limited and inadequate maintenance, negligent safety culture, economic factors, and human performance together can resonate and contribute to accidents. In this way it aims to contribute to accident prevention and the engineering of more resilient complex dynamic systems.
The Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Accident: a Systemic Analysis of Functional Resonance. 2007 International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, 763-768.
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