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And while the airline did eventually settle the suits, it did so only after dragging the families through what many described as a legal hell in which Alaskas lawyers tried to downplay the monetary value of their deceased loved ones. The first flight was from San Diego International Airport to Portland, Oregon. She was traveling with her husband, Terry, their two sons, and their sons friends. According to court documents, Arntson piloted two Alaska Airlines flights on June 20, 2014. 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. The free-swinging stabilizer rotated up past its stop, slamming back against the aerodynamic fairing that encased the tail. Ballet lessons and cooperative day care were part of her life. Did you encounter any technical issues? Ah, here we go, said Captain Thompson, uttering the last words captured on the cockpit voice recorder. Did maintenance errors cause the tragic crash? According to the official maintenance manual, greasing the jackscrew involved three main steps. Erickson was a student pilot. That plane just started to do a big, huge plunge, said one pilot. Thompson was traveling with her husband, Morris Thompson, and daughter, Sheryl Thompson. appreciated. Gabriela Chavez, 33, Puerto Vallarta, MexicoA homemaker, wife and mother of one, Ms. Chavez was flying to San Francisco to visit her sister. 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. They heard a helicopter, but they were unable to fire the flare gun successfully and the helicopter left. 13 months later. 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. First, pressurized grease was to be injected into a special tube on the nut until it filled all the thread gaps between the nut and the jackscrew and started to bulge out the top. At Alaska Airlines, our roots trace back to the Great Depression and the resourcefulness of Mac McGee. But they would tend to be more short-lived or there are easy ways for pilots to counteract such failures, he said. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Lives would have been saved if they had. As investigators recovered more and more of the plane from the ocean floor, a troubling picture of the sequence of events began to emerge. Patty Williams, 63, Poulsbo, Kitsap CountyMrs. A former Alaska Airlines captain faces jail time for piloting a plane carrying passengers while under the influence of alcohol, over four years after the incident took place. He lived with his mother in Oakland and spent much of his time caring for exotic birds, his koi pond and a garden. The main character Whip Whitaker (played by Denzel Washington) has been through a divorce and the estrangement from his son. Thorgrimson, a founding partner of a prominent Seattle-based law firm. LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities have arrested a former Alaska Airlines captain on federal charges of piloting a plane while intoxicated. Fox News Alexandra Deabler contributed to this report. Average Alaska Airlines Pilot yearly pay in the United States is approximately $186,628, which is 234% above the national average. In 1987, Alaska Airlines greased the stabilizer jackscrews on its MD-80s every 500 flight hours, the value recommended by the manufacturer. Indeed, all seemed normal as flight 261 climbed out from Puerto Vallarta, heading for its cruising altitude of 31,000 feet. Its an outcome that has left many of them bitter to this day. 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. Okay, we had a big bang back there, said the flight attendant. The airline extended numerous maintenance intervals, while simultaneously skimping on personnel and training. Still flying inverted, the plane leveled further, to nine degrees nose down. Prosecutors said that Arnston was an alcoholic during at least a substantial portion" of his career, and concealed the fact from both the carrier and FAA. Yeah, no, said Thompson. No survivors Erickson indicated that he and the pilot had been drinking alcoholic beverages, investigator Brice Banning wrote. He had gone to Mexico with his cousins, Anjesh Prasad and Avinesh Prasad, to celebrate. That was the how but the bigger question was why. The revelations were in a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the Anchorage Daily News reported . But after Liotine left for the night, the next shift and the shift supervisors decided to run the test again before taking his measurement at face value. 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. Federal regulations limit alcohol levels to 0.04 for airplane crew members.Were the bodies of Flight 261 recovered? You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Uh, if you want to try it, thats ok with me, if not, thats fine. In 1991, after posting a record loss of $121 million, the companys business analysts concluded that to remain competitive, Alaska Airlines needed to reduce expenses. During the course of the investigation and in its final report, the NTSB issued a large number of recommendations, including that the lubrication procedure for the MD-80 series jackscrew be revised; that a more accurate method of measuring wear on the jackscrew be developed; that maintenance technicians be specifically taught how to grease and inspect jackscrews; that the FAA not approve lubrication interval extensions without the airline providing supporting data; that all airlines be surveyed to ensure compliance with jackscrew lubrication procedures; that a bulletin be issued instructing pilots not to troubleshoot inoperative flight controls; that maintenance personnel and dispatchers be trained not to suggest continuation of a flight that is experiencing a major malfunction; that the jackscrew be made easier for maintenance workers to access; that an inspector be required to sign off on every lubrication of the jackscrew; that all maintenance intervals for critical components be re-examined based on data analysis to ensure that they are not too long; that the application process for maintenance interval changes be reformed; that MD-80 series jackscrew inspections be made on a tighter schedule; that some failsafe mechanism be incorporated to ensure the redundancy of the MD-80 jackscrew; and that the FAA ensure future stabilizer designs cant have a single point of failure. 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. And so began a slash-and-burn cost-cutting campaign a campaign that culminated in a terrible black mark which will forever hang over the company, a tragedy so horrible and so preventable that it would call the safety of the entire industry into question. The pilots decided that Los Angeles looked better. I cant reach it! said Tansky. It was clear that nobody had survived the crash. Contact me via @Admiral_Cloudberg on Reddit, @KyraCloudy on Twitter, or by email at kyracloudy97@gmail.com. Collins said the bodies recovered were those of an infant, two women and a man. 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. You got it?. She was a flight attendant for Alaska. He was coming home from Mexico with his girlfriend, Nina Voronoff. What a hard way to die: so an airline can make more money., ________________________________________________________________. The co-pilot also recalled Arntson saying "I bet it's for me.". The crew scrambled to react to the massive upset. 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. By nightfall, working with the help of flood lights from squid fishing boats, recovery workers managed to find just seven bodies. Instead, all they could find was an oil slick and some light floating debris. It added dozens of new routes, expanded to a large number of new cities, and even added services to Mexico in order to offset the seasonal nature of its flights to Alaska. Meghann Hall, 19, EnumclawA graduate of Enumclaw High School, she had considered a career in sports medicine or coaching. The night shift subsequently performed the test five more times and measured a wear depth of approximately 0.84mm on each attempt. In September 2000, he filed a $20 million libel lawsuit against Alaska Airlines, arguing that he had been right all along and that Alaska had maliciously harmed his reputation. The effect was immediate and catastrophic, as his inputs ripped out whatever threads remained on the jackscrew nut. Some did still less, failing even to ensure that grease totally filled the inside of the nut. Mr. Sparks was a guard on his schools varsity basketball team, and is remembered as a champion of the underdog who stood up for less-popular classmates. 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. How long were they stuck in the woods after the plane crash? The pilot of Flight 261, Capt. 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. The rec room at the Karlsson home featured a jukebox, a pinball machine and a bumper-pool table. WebOn Flight 261, the nut portion of the jackscrew (located on the horizontal stabilizer) screwed itself off the jackscew. Its on the stop now, its on the stop, Thompson said. Bradley Long, 39, SacramentoA successful real estate broker, Mr. Long was flying home from visiting the bed-and-breakfast inn he owned in Puerto Vallarta with his partner, William Knudson. Discovery Company. According to court documents, Arntson piloted two Alaska Airlines flights on June 20, 2014. Within the next several minutes the pilots expected to pass abeam Los Angeles off the coast, and they were strongly considering a diversion to LAX, given that none of their troubleshooting had fixed the problem.