Airplane crashes off U.S. coast

"We'll put them up for the night. We'll feed them. We'll console them. We'll bring to them whatever they desire."

--- RON WILSON, a spokesman for the San Francisco airport

Airplane

the Pacific Ocean 40 miles northwest of the Los Angeles airport Monday after reporting mechanical problems. Several bodies were recovered from the chilly water, but there was no sign of survivors hours after the crash.

Flight 261, heading from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and later to Seattle, went down at 6:36 p.m. Topeka time, the airline said.

A National Park Service ranger on Anacapa Island, near the crash site, "observed a jet going down," spokeswoman Susan Smith said at Channel Islands National Park headquarters. "From his observation it was nose first."

A large field of debris rolled in big swells off Point Mugu as aircraft and small boats converged on the area just before sunset. Hours later, the high-power lights of commercial squid boats illuminated the darkness as a cutter and small boats continued the search.

Several bodies were found, Coast Guard Lt. Chuck Diorio said, but he couldn't give a specific number.

"Every resource is out there to find people," said Coast Guard Capt. George Wright. "We're actively searching for survivors. In 58- degree water temperature, people can survive. We're not going to quit until we're positive there's absolutely no chance."

Alaska Airlines spokesman Jack Evans said the plane was carrying 83 passengers and five crew members.

The plane was an MD-83, part of the MD-80 series aircraft built by McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, said John Thom, a spokesman for Boeing's Douglas aircraft unit. The plane that crashed was delivered to Alaska Airlines in 1992, Thom said.

The jet's crew had reported mechanical difficulties and asked to land at Los Angeles, said Ron Wilson, a spokesman for the San Francisco airport.

"Radar indicates it fell from 17,000 feet and then was lost from radar," Wilson told KRON-TV in San Francisco.

Len Sloper, an Alaska Airlines customer service agent in Los Angeles, said the pilot reported having problems with the "stabilizer trim" shortly before the plane crashed.

On the MD-80 series airplanes, the horizontal stabilizer looks like a small wing mounted on top of the tail. The stabilizer, which includes elevators --- panels that pitch the nose up and down --- is brought into balance, or "trimmed," from the cockpit.

If a plane lost its horizontal stabilizer, it would have no means to keep the nose pointed at the proper angle up or down, and the plane would begin an uncontrollable dive.

A source with close knowledge of the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the flight was normal and stable until the crew reported control problems. Radar showed the plane plunging toward the ocean shortly afterward.

Evans said the plane had no previous stabilizer problems, and FAA spokesman John Clabes said it had never been in an accident.

Evans also said the plane was serviced Sunday, went through a low- level maintenance check Jan. 11 and had a more thorough routine check last January. It was unclear what Sunday's service entailed.

Alaska Airlines, which has a distinctive image of an Eskimo painted on the tails of its planes, has an excellent safety record. It serves more than 40 cities in Alaska, Canada, Mexico and five Western states.

Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, operates several flights from Puerto Vallarta, a resort on Mexico's Pacific coast, to San Jose, San Francisco and other California cities.

The airline had two fatal accidents in the 1970s, both in Alaska, according to Airsafe.com, a Web site that tracks plane crashes.

In 1971, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 727-100 approaching Juneau crashed into a mountain slope after the crew had received misleading navigational information. All 104 passengers and seven crew members were killed.

In 1976, one passenger was killed when a 727 overran the runway after landing in Ketchikan.

Wilson said San Francisco airport officials offered to help friends and families of the victims Monday night.

"Whatever they want us to do," he said. "We'll put them up for the night. We'll feed them. We'll console them. We'll bring to them whatever they desire."

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