On January 31 2000 Alaska Airlines Flight 261 took off from Puerto Vallarta Mexico heading to Seattle Washington with a scheduled stop at San Francisco International Airport What started as a routine flight ended in one of the deadliest aviation disasters in US history
The MD83 aircraft never reached its destination There were 88 people on board 83 passengers and 5 crew members Tragically none survived
While flying over the Pacific Ocean near Anacapa Island California the plane ran into serious mechanical trouble The crew informed air traffic control they were having issues with the horizontal stabilizer a key part that controls the plane’s pitch
To manage the situation the pilots were cleared to maintain an altitude between 20000 and 25000 feet Later they received permission to divert to Los Angeles International Airport
The Federal Aviation Administration later found the crash was caused by a failure of the jackscrew assembly in the plane’s tail The jackscrew responsible for adjusting the horizontal stabilizer had worn out due to poor lubrication This failure left the crew unable to control the aircraft’s pitch
Cockpit voice recordings captured the tense final moments Captain Ted Thompson initially told air traffic control Yeah we’ve got it back under control there But First Officer Bill Tansky responded grimly No we don’t
Despite desperate attempts including trying to fly the plane upside down to regain control the aircraft lost too much altitude
Another pilot nearby reported seeing the plane take a big huge plunge then enter a nose down position descending quite rapidly Soon after the plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean at high speed
The violent impact destroyed the plane completely killing all 88 people on board from blunt force trauma
Investigators recovered the flight data recorder cockpit voice recorder and about 80 percent of the wreckage These were reconstructed at Port Hueneme Naval Base in California to help piece together the cause of the disaster
To honor those lost a sundial monument was built at Port Hueneme Every year on January 31 the sundial’s shadow falls on a memorial plaque marking the anniversary of this tragic event
