Alaska Airlines Flight 261

Alaska Airlines Flight 261

Alaska Airlines MD-83, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident summary
Date	January 31, 2000 (2000-01-31)
Summary	Jackscrew failure due to improper maintenance
Site	Pacific Ocean near Anacapa Island, California
Passengers	83
Crew	5
Fatalities	88 (all)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas MD-83
Operator	Alaska Airlines
Registration	N963AS
Flight origin	Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Int'l Airport
Stopover	San Francisco Int'l Airport
Destination	Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport

External image

airliners.net's Photo gallery of N963AS

Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight on January 31, 2000 from Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) north of Anacapa Island, California, after suffering a catastrophic loss of pitch control. The crash killed everyone aboard: two pilots, three cabin crewmembers, and 83 passengers.

The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and eventual failure of a critical flight control system during flight. The probable cause was stated to be "a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly's acme nut threads. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines' insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly".