Web19K views 2 years ago. This article is written without reference to and supersedes the original. The Safety Board found that this unsafe inspection interval was only approved indirectly by the FAA. Possibly. Whatever we did is no good, dont do that again, said Tansky. FAA employees charged with overseeing safety compliance at Alaska before the crash complained that they did not have sufficient staff to closely track its operations, which doubtlessly contributed to the airlines ability to keep woefully deficient maintenance practices under the radar of the federal government. He was coming home from Mexico with his girlfriend, Nina Voronoff. In the cockpit, the pilots heard a loud clunk followed by two thumps, and the plane pitched steeply downward. The 2 pilots, 3 cabin crew members, and 83 passengers on board were killed, and the airplane 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. First Officer William (Bill) Tansky, 57, had 8,140 total flight hours, including about 8,060 hours as first officer in the MD-80. How should I dress my baby in a 70 degree room at night? If done correctly, the process took about four hours. Just do what you need to do there, SkyWest 5154. Keep us advised.. The night shift subsequently performed the test five more times and measured a wear depth of approximately 0.84mm on each attempt. Planes inverted sir, a nearby pilot told the controller. Uh, its a lot worse than it was? Tansky asked. Morris Thompson, 62, Fairbanks, AlaskaAn advocate for Alaska natives, he was celebrating his retirement after 12 years as president of Doyon, Ltd., a multimillion dollar Alaska Native regional corporation. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Key safety-related positions within the airlines management structure went unfilled. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) The pilot of an airplane in a fatal Alaska crash had six times the legal limit of alcohol in his system for flying, according to federal investigators. He was coming home with his wife, Carol. Then, additional grease was to be applied to the entire length of the screw, filling all the threads. John Cuthbertso, 70, Danville, Calif.A smallish man with a Scottish brogue and gray beard who looked younger than his 70 years, he used to own a heating and air-conditioning company and drove a flashy car. Joyce Lake, 62, Corte Madera, Calif.She was the top seller at a local real-estate brokerage, an avid community activist and mother of three grown sons. Busche was traveling with his wife, Abigail Busche, whom he met when they were students at Western Washington. Web19K views 2 years ago. LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities have arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated. KTLA 5 adds that Arnston will also have to pay a $10,000 fine, in addition. 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. I think its at the stop, full stop, said Thompson. Sheri Christensen, 25, Federal WayShe grew up in Yakima, one of four children of Bob and Pat Stookey, and moved to the Seattle area with her husband, Jeff Christensen. For the relatives of the victims, this fact made it all the more important that Alaska Airlines pay for its negligence. But they would tend to be more short-lived or there are easy ways for pilots to counteract such failures, he said. Minimum first-time offenses include fines, possible jail time and mantadory alcohol treatment classes, among other penalties. When the jackscrew was hauled to the surface, investigators could not find any trace of grease on it, except for some old, dried out leftovers outside the normal working area of the screw. We did both the pickle switches and the suitcase handles, he told the maintenance technician, and it ran away full nose trim down., And now were in a pinch, Thompson continued, so were holding, uh, were worse than we were.. The 2 pilots, 3 cabin crew members, and 83 passengers on board were killed, and the airplane As a result, Alaska Airlines slowly increased the interval between jackscrew lubrications from 500 flight hours in 1987 to every eight months (approximately 2,250 flight hours) in 1999. That plane just started to do a big, huge plunge, said one pilot. She played fast-pitch softball in high school and soccer at Bellevue Community College. She edited the Floating Homes Association newsletter. Alaska Airlines flight AS261 crashed on January 31, 2000, about 1621 Pacific standard time, Alaska Airlines, Inc., flight AS261, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, N963AS : it crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California.. Deborah Penna, 27, SeattleA fourth-year art student at Cornish College of the Arts, Ms. Penna was a multimedia artist known for her abstract paintings. Los Angeles controllers gave flight 261 permission to approach the airport, but Thompson asked to stay out over the ocean while they tested the controllability of their airplane. Thompson was an Air Force veteran who had flown for Alaska Airlines for more than 17 years. Seeking opportunity during the Great Depression, he stowed away on an Alaska-bound steamship hoping to find better times. Williams, traveling with her husband, Bob Williams, would have celebrated her 64th birthday on Feb. 8, 2000. Glenn Hatleberg, 65, Eugene, Ore.The husband of Barbara Hatleberg, retired father of three grown children and grandfather of two small girls, Mr. Hatleberg was beloved at his Lutheran church in Eugene, where he served as an usher during services. Arntson was selected for random drug and alcohol testing by Alaska Airlines at at John Wayne Airport after landing. Bermudez was a firefighter who helped save the life of a person trapped inside a burning building in 1988. Did maintenance errors cause the tragic crash? 4:39 PM EST, Thu February 8, 2018. Its on the stop now, its on the stop, Thompson said. By trimming the stabilizer to (for example) a nose up position, the pilots or the autopilot can keep the plane in a steady climb without touching the controls at all. He was a vice president of business development for Creditland, Inc. He will be sentenced this spring in US District Court in Santa Ana, California, according to the attorney. It was clear that nobody had survived the crash. CNN has reached out to Alaska Airlines for comment. The airline extended numerous maintenance intervals, while simultaneously skimping on personnel and training. The basic design of the stabilizer is relatively simple. Federal regulations limit alcohol levels to 0.04 for airplane crew members. He is also survived by a grown son, Fred. Steve Wilkie, 38, San FranciscoThe brand manager of the Levi Strauss Silvertab clothing line, Mr. Wilkie had recently received the companys exalted Koshman Award in recognition for his work on marketing in Europe. Don Shaw, 63, SheltonAffable tour guide, Mr. Shaw was a fixture in the halls of the Legislature. Okay, give me sl see, this is a bitch! said Thompson. WebOn Flight 261, the nut portion of the jackscrew (located on the horizontal stabilizer) screwed itself off the jackscew. Both Captain Thompson and First Officer Tansky posthumously received the Air Line Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism. But this very success may have planted the seeds of the disaster which followed. The couple was considering starting their own insurance agency. Different speeds and phases of flight require the stabilizer to apply varying amounts of downforce on the tail in order to keep the plane level, and further adjustments must be made to ensure that the pilots dont have to continuously pull up or push down using the elevators in order to climb or descend. All Rights Reserved. She studied art in Chicago and on the East Coast before coming West. The revelations were in a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Anchorage Daily News reported . Nine years after the cost-cutting began, Alaska Airlines was posting profits again, its fleet was expanding, and passenger numbers were higher than ever. Robert Thorgrimson, 63, PoulsboA special-education teacher for North Kitsap School District, Mr. Thorgrimson was known as a sincere man who helped save the local chapter of DeMolay, the Masons club for boys. Sarah Pearson, 36, SeattleWith her husband, Rodney Pearson, and their children, Rachel and Grace, she was vacationing with friends and Queen Anne neighbors, the Clemetsons. No survivors Erickson indicated that he and the pilot had been drinking alcoholic beverages, investigator Brice Banning wrote. But in the end he was forced to accept a mere $500,000 settlement, far less than the $20 million he had sought, and only then on the condition that he resign from his job. Still, the pilots did not give up; Thompson thought it might be possible to roll out right-side-up using the rudder. CNN A former Alaska Airlines pilot plans to plead guilty in California to flying with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit for pilots. 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. A case worker at the Northwest AIDS Foundation, he joined with his partner in a commitment ceremony two years ago at First Baptist Church in Seattle with one of their dogs as the ring-bearer. Yeah, we tried everything together, said Thompson. Indeed, by the end of the 1990s, what had once been a small regional carrier had successfully transformed itself into one of Americas largest airlines. Consequences of Flying Drunk So what happens when a pilot is arrested for flying under the influence? She was a flight attendant for Alaska. First Officer William Tansky, 57, Alameda, Calif.The co-pilot on Flight 261, he was two years from retirement. He was traveling with several college friends. In hindsight, the crew should have turned around and immediately landed back in Puerto Vallarta. Malcolm Branson, 39, Seward, AlaskaAn oiler for the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, Mr. Branson was vacationing with his fiancee, Janice Stokes. The pilots didnt want to discover on final approach that the plane was uncontrollable at low speeds. He had treated his cousins, Avinesh Prasad and Avinesh Amit Deo, to a trip to Mexico. The first flight was from San Diego International Airport to Portland, Oregon. AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER BITTEN BY BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER ON PLANE, LAWSUIT CLAIMS.