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Legal Statement. WebAlaska Flight 261 Pilots Awarded ALPA Gold Medal Air Line Pilot, March 2001, p. 22 By Chris Dodd, Staff Writer Two Alaska Airlines pilots who fought until their last moments to regain control of their MD-80 despite an inoperative horizontal stabilizer have been honored with ALPAs Gold Medal for Heroism in a special ceremony in Seattle. School counselors said she and her friend, Rachel Janosik, were funny, enjoyable, mature young women. 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. The basic design of the stabilizer is relatively simple. Join the discussion of this article on Reddit! He was traveling with his cousins, Anjesh Prasad and Avinesh Amit Deo. Jean Gandesbery, 66, Davis, Calif.An adjunct instructor of writing at the University of San Franciscos Sacramento campus, Ms. Gandesbery just had her childhood memoirs published by Minerva Press in a novel, Seven Mile Lake. She was married to Robert Gandesbery. or redistributed. 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says, Pittsburgh woman missing for 31 years found alive in Puerto Rico, Alex Murdaugh found guilty of murders of wife and son. 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. Following the crash and the damning FAA special inspection report, Alaska Airlines overhauled its maintenance program, including through its compliance with a new FAA airworthiness directive mandating that the jackscrew lubrication interval not exceed 650 flight hours. Captain Thompson argued that conditions would be more suitable for landing at Los Angeles, and the dispatcher admitted that the reason they preferred San Francisco was because a diversion would disrupt flow, worsening mounting delays in Alaskas flight schedule. Mechanical stops attached to the jackscrew prevent the stabilizer from moving farther than 2.5 degrees upward or 12.5 degrees downward. January 22, 2016 Examined 9:54 Whats next for 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. For the relatives of the victims, this fact made it all the more important that Alaska Airlines pay for its negligence. Federal regulations limit alcohol levels to 0.04 for airplane crew members. He was vacationing with his daughter, Jacquelyn Choate. Let me just try it, Tansky said, offering to take over the strenuous task of holding the plane level. What he liked best in life was family, said his longtime medical assistant. You heard it in the back? Tansky asked. January 22, 2016 Examined 9:54 Whats next for Colleen Whorley, 34, SeattleAn art director at Microsoft, Ms. Whorley honed her skills in photography. Well see you at the gate. This would be the last transmission between flight 261 and Alaska Airlines maintenance. A flight attendant opened the cockpit door, and Captain Thompson briefed her on the situation. Contact me via @Admiral_Cloudberg on Reddit, @KyraCloudy on Twitter, or by email at kyracloudy97@gmail.com. Thompson was an Air Force veteran who had flown for Alaska Airlines for more than 17 years. Flight 261 was traveling from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco on Jan. 31, 2000 when a mechanical malfunction inverted the jet and sent it downward off the Ventura County coast. As far as the pilots were concerned, the electric motors had probably seized and they could fly on to San Francisco without trimming the stabilizer. Arntson was selected for random drug and alcohol testing by Alaska Airlines at at John Wayne Airport after landing. The report noted that the crash could have been avoided if they had immediately returned to Puerto Vallarta when they encountered the jammed stabilizer. For Linious Mac McGee, 1932 marked the beginning of a new way of life, and steady work. Sheryl Thompson, 33, Valdez, AlaskaTraveling with her parents, Morris and Thelma Thompson, Ms. Thompson was an important figure in extreme skiing in Valdez, helping organize annual events. Were slowing here, and were gonna do a little troubleshooting, can you give me a block altitude between twenty and twenty five?. Tragically, they didnt. The 2 pilots, 3 cabin crew members, and 83 passengers on board were killed, and the airplane David Hans Arntson, 60, was arrested Wednesday morning and arraigned in federal court in Los Angeles, according to a Department of Justice news release. The result was a chronic problem of Alaska Airlines MD-80s with poorly greased jackscrews. Malcolm Branson, 39, Seward, AlaskaAn oiler for the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, Mr. Branson was vacationing with his fiancee, Janice Stokes. Born in Hawaii, Mr. Ing grew up on Mercer Island, graduating from Mercer Island High School in 1990. Ms. Halls only brother died four years ago of a motorcycle accident. I really didnt want to hear about flow being the reason youre calling us, he said to the dispatcher, Cause Im concerned about overflying suitable airports., Well we want to do whats safe, said the dispatcher, so if thats what you feel is safe we just want to make sure you have all the info., The pilots asked for information on the runway conditions in San Francisco, and the dispatcher temporarily signed off to go find some. The design of the jackscrew on the MD-80 series was identical to that of the original 1960s-era Douglas DC-9, which was certified to meet requirements stating that no reasonably probable single failure of the control system could jeopardize the controllability of the airplane. The actual protocol at Alaska Airlines was to inspect the jackscrew for wear at every second C-check, a comprehensive multi-day inspection that every airplane undergoes approximately once a year. Ted Thompson, 53, Redlands, Calif.The pilot of Flight 261, Capt. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS. 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. For several months he surreptitiously recorded his bosses violating safety rules and handed the tapes over to FAA investigators. 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. Thus the fundamental principle of redundancy was violated. Web19K views 2 years ago. And then, as the plane passed through 23,400 feet, a warning light flicked on in the cockpit: AUTOPILOT TRIM, it said. 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. Permanent License Revocation If the investigators conclude that the pilot was intoxicated prior to a flight, the FAA will typically revoke the pilots license permanently. 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. Who is the man on the tail of Alaska Airlines planes? And therein lay the problem: throughout the period leading up to the crash, Alaska Airlines slowly removed all the procedural layers of redundancy which were designed to prevent the jackscrew from deteriorating to the point of failure. According to court documents, Arntson piloted two Alaska Airlines flights on June 20, 2014. Both of them were creative, outgoing people. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. But we will be going into LAX, and Id anticipate us parking there in about twenty to thirty minutes.. A member of Ski Patrol, he was known to friends as Pat. That was the how but the bigger question was why. However, during the 1990s the quality of maintenance at Alaska Airlines began to slip significantly. / CBS News. A year after the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, lawyers representing families of the victims contend the jet's pilots erred by failing to quickly land the MD-80 when problems first surfaced minutes into the flight. LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities have arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated. He was coming home from Mexico with his girlfriend, Nina Voronoff. More importantly, investigators felt that the pilots should not have attempted to troubleshoot the problem after exhausting the procedures in the checklist, considering that they didnt know the extent of the damage. Should you poke holes in potatoes before boiling? The pilot of Flight 261, Capt. It worked. A Newport Beach airline pilot has been arrested and charged with piloting an Alaska Airlines jet full of passengers while under the influence of alcohol, authorities said Thursday. As flight 261 climbed through 23,400 feet at approximately 13:49 that day, the badly worn threads started to tear away from the nut, wrapping themselves around the jackscrew and causing the stabilizer to jam. But airline dispatchers in Seattle were less keen on this idea and preferred that flight 261 continue to San Francisco as scheduled. The airline ended up being fined a mere $44,000 for allowing planes to fly 840 times without properly completed maintenance records. Did maintenance errors cause the tragic crash? You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Nine years after the cost-cutting began, Alaska Airlines was posting profits again, its fleet was expanding, and passenger numbers were higher than ever. (Alaska specifically did this every 30 months, or 9,550 flight hours.) When he landed in Orange County, he was selected for random drug and alcohol testing, according to a statement from the US Attorneys Office. I went tab down, right, and it should have come back. The maintenance technician, having received all the information he could get, said, Okay, thank you sir, see you there., Meanwhile, the conversation had apparently encouraged Captain Thompson to try moving the stabilizer again. Quality control fell by the wayside as workers performed tasks they didnt understand, while under pressure to get planes back in service as quickly as possible. Mr. Marquez was flying home alone while Mr. Rettinger stayed behind for a longer vacation. Neither the electric switches (which the pilots called pickle switches) nor the fully manual trim handles (referred to as the suitcase handles) could move the stabilizer. All large airplanes have what is referred to as a trimmable horizontal stabilizer. PLANE CRASH, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Pacific Ocean Other Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list more. Grace Pearson, 23 months, SeattleLittle Grace Pearson was traveling with her parents, Sarah and Rodney Pearson, and her sister, Rachel. Still descending at high speed, flight 261s engines proved unable to keep combustion going in such an unusual attitude and started to stall with a series of loud bangs. She was traveling with her former college classmates. Patty Williams, 63, Poulsbo, Kitsap CountyMrs. First Officer William (Bill) Tansky, 57, had 8,140 total flight hours, including about 8,060 hours as first officer in the MD-80. On board flight 261, Captain Thompson vented to First Officer Tansky: Drives me nuts, he said. She used to drive a riding lawn mower around their yard, and relax in the family swimming pool. Even though the pilots fought for control for a short period, an MD-80 will not The pilots didnt want to discover on final approach that the plane was uncontrollable at low speeds. The entire horizontal stabilizer assembly was now attached to the airplane only by the rear hinge. 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. It might be mechanical damage too. Speedbrakes! Captain Thompson called out, still trying to find ways to arrest the dive. Web3.3M views 1 year ago Air Alaska Flight 261 dives into the ocean shortly after takeoff, killing the 88 passengers and crew on board. No survivors Erickson indicated that he and the pilot had been drinking alcoholic beverages, investigator Brice Banning wrote. If a pilot is discovered to have a BAC of 0.04 or more, the FAA can have the pilots license suspended for a year or place criminal charges, even if they havent taken off in an aircraft. She was part of the Flight 261 crew. Thelma Thompson, 56, Fairbanks, AlaskaMrs. LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities have arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated. Monte Donaldson, 31, SeattleA freelance landscaper, his passion was music and filmmaking. And because of the increased interval between applications of new grease, a jackscrew with insufficient grease couldnt expect to see more until the plane had been in the air for another 2,250 hours. He once owned the reknowned Blue Moon Tavern in the University District and the J & M Cafe in Pioneer Square. 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. Naomi Laigo, 53, Fairfield, Calif.A devoted mother of three sons who was a nurse at a clinic in San Leandro, Calif., she grew roses in her spare time. She was traveling with her husband, Terry, their two sons, and their sons friends. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Erickson indicated that he and the pilot had been drinking alcoholic beverages, investigator Brice Banning wrote. I think the stab trim thing is broke, said Thompson. After the June 2014 incident, Arntson retired from Alaska Airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilots license, the US Attorneys Office said. According to the plea agreement, both breathalyzer tests performed on Arnston were well above the federal limit of 0.04 percent for pilots, indicating blood alcohol concentrations of 0.134 and 0.142 percent, over three times the legal limit. View on timesmachine. Still flying inverted, the plane leveled further, to nine degrees nose down. View on timesmachine. Only by applying a continuous maximum nose up elevator input on his control column, a task which required enormous physical effort, was Captain Thompson able to maintain level flight. Do you poke holes in potatoes when boiling? Fun stories about food, relationships, the great outdoors and more. It looks like hes turning hes turning over in front of you now, said the controller. We are at twenty three seven, request, uh, Thompson said to the controller. The problem, again, was a lack of redundancy: if the threads on the nut failed, there was no other structure that could absorb the load, and the catastrophic failure of the trim system leading to the loss of the airplane was inevitable. Video of the flight as well as the cockpit voice recorder confirm this. But there was nothing to be done. The logo was changed to an image of a smiling Eskimo, which remains today. The rec room at the Karlsson home featured a jukebox, a pinball machine and a bumper-pool table. The investigation uncovered a daunting list of operational problems and regulatory mistakes that led to the crash. Rodney Pearson, 45, SeattleMr. This article is written without reference to and supersedes the original. I dont anticipate any big problems once we get a couple of sub systems on the line. Nevertheless, investigators praised the pilots for their heroic last-ditch efforts to save their aircraft, even attempting to fly upside down when they found they could not level the plane. N963AS, the plane that would later become Alaska Airlines flight 261, was one of many in the airlines fleet that was subject to these marginal maintenance practices. With the stabilizer angled 3.1 degrees toward nose down, more than the design maximum of 2.5 degrees, flight 261 immediately entered a high-speed dive, hurtling downward at more than 6,000 feet per minute. 13 months later. 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. Russel Ing, 28, SeattleA visual-arts graduate who worked in graphic design for Kinkos in Woodinville, Mr. Ing won awards for his photography. His attorney, Dyke Huish, said Arnston had a perfect safety record over his nearly 30-year career, and never tested positive for alcohol before that incident. Joe Knight, 54, MonroePastor and missionary Joe Knight, with his wife, co-pastor and co-missionary, Linda Knight, worked to help starving children and families in Mexico. LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities have arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated. With Tom Church, he opened Six Degrees, which he hoped to turn into a chain of high-end neighborhood restaurants. Even though the pilots fought for control for a short period, an MD-80 will not Lives would have been saved if they had. 4:39 PM EST, Thu February 8, 2018. Harry Stasinos, 54, BrierMr. 2023 Cable News Network. Still, the pilots did not give up; Thompson thought it might be possible to roll out right-side-up using the rudder. Consequences of Flying Drunk So what happens when a pilot is arrested for flying under the influence? The revelations were in a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Anchorage Daily News reported . That was the last time anyone ever measured the wear on the jackscrew nut on N963AS. She was traveling with her father, Dr. David Clemetson, her stepmother, Carolyn Clemetson, and their blended family.