Alaska Airlines Flight 261

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Recommended: Human Error in Aviation (Critical Essays on Human Factors in Aviation)

On January 31, 2000 Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was in route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Seattle, Washington with a stop planned for San Francisco, California. Things went catastrophically wrong, even with the subtle hints of disaster that could be seen lurking in the shadows from takeoff. All 83 passengers and 5 crewmembers aboard the MD-83 (N963AS) ultimately paid the price for simple oversights. This paper will try to shed light into the underlying circumstances that led up to the uncontrollable crash. This will include the flight crew overlooking obvious signs of trouble from liftoff, to the preventative maintenance that was performed, and finally delve into the heart of the investigational findings of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Climbing into the afternoon sky above Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Jan. 31, 2000, 5 flight crew members and 83 passengers settled in for the nearly four hour flight to San Francisco. As the jet passed 7,500 feet, Capt. Ted Thompson turned on the autopilot as he had done many times before being a seasoned commercial airline pilot with 10,400 hours of flight time under his belt, alongside 1st Officer William Tansky whom was no stranger to aviation himself logging more than 8,047 hours to his credit. After 13 minutes of smooth flying, nearing the cruising altitude of 31,000 feet, the auto-pilot disengaged indicating to the flight crew that the stabilizer trim system was apparently not working properly and the aircraft was going to have to be flown manually (by hand) for the rest of the flight. After interviewing several veteran airline pilots, it was in agreement that the crew probably thought it was nothing serious, and had no reason to alert passengers and cause them needless worry. The stabi...

... middle of paper ...

...e lawsuits brought by surviving family members were settled out of court before going to trial. The construction of a memorial sundial was placed at Port Hueneme to cast a shadow on a memorial plaque at 4:22 p.m. every January 31st as a reminder of the people who lost their lives due to the oversight of others.

Works Cited

Wallace, J. (2000, Dec 9). A hierarchy of human error may have doomed Alaska Flight
261. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Para. 11
Wikipedia Encyclopedia. (2000, January 31). Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Web site.
Retrieved June 26, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261 Seattle Post Intelligencer. (2001, January 30) Flight 261 Web site. Retrieved June 26,
2007, from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/flight261/
Aviation Weekly. (2005, October 9) Alaska Airlines, FAA Scrutinize MD-80 Jackscrew issues. Frances Fiorino

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