Aviation

Citation

(2000), "Aviation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 9 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2000.07309eac.006

Aviation

Aviation

22 December 1999 – Guatemala City, Guatemala

Rescue workers were today to resume searching the wreckage of a Cuban jet that crashed into a Guatemalan neighbourhood. Over 20 people were killed in the crash, including some on the ground. Rescue workers planned to resume searching the wreckage from yesterday's DC-10 crash, at daylight. Authorities previously had said 26 people died – eight crew members, nine passengers and nine on the ground – but today Guatemalan officials lowered the death toll to 23. It was unclear how the accident happened. Airport officials at first said the aircraft skidded on the rain-soaked runway. However, air traffic director, Mario Grajeda, later said the aircraft may have "overshot the runway." The black boxes were retrieved and were being investigated. Two homes were completely destroyed by the crash and many homes were damaged. Dozens of rescue workers combed the area, retrieving bodies and airplane parts. Guatemala City's fire chief, Oscar Bonilla, warned the death count might go up. Only two bodies have been identified so far: the pilot, Cecilio Hernandez, who died when the cockpit was crushed, and Daniel Antonio Alarcon Fernandez, the third secretary at the Guatemalan Embassy in Havana. The DC-10 jet-liner had been rented by Cubana de Aviacion from a French company for the past five years.

25 December 1999 – Kathmandu, Nepal

Rescue helicopters today searched around Kathmandu for a small aircraft owned by a private Nepalese airline that went missing with ten people on board, airport officials said. The Twin Otter aircraft, owned by Skyline Airlines, was on a flight to Kathmandu from Simara, 150km south of the Nepalese capital. It was carrying seven Nepalese passengers and three crew.

26 December 1999 – Search teams found the wreckage of a private Nepali airlines aircraft in the hills close to Kathmandu today and a rescue official believed all on board died in the crash. The Twin Otter aircraft, carrying seven Nepali passengers and three crew, crashed minutes before it was due to land in the Nepali capital yesterday. A Rescue Co-ordination Committee official at Kathmandu's airport said:

There are no chances of any survivors.

The official said wreckage and body parts were strewn over the hillside crash site. The aircraft, operated by privately-owned Skyline Airlines, was on a scheduled flight from Simara, 150km to the south of Kathmandu, when it crashed. Ratish Chandra Lai, another RCC official, told Reuters:

The aircraft has broken into pieces.

Two rescue helicopters had landed near the crash site and ground teams had also reached the forested hill at Sukura village, 27km south of the Nepali capital, where the aircraft went down. Lai said local villagers had informed the authorities about the crash site at dawn today.

Rescue workers have recovered six bodies from the wreckage. Bimal Karna, a Rescue Co-ordination Committee official said:

Bodies of four men and two women were picked up from the hillside crash site.

The De Havilland DUC-6 (Twin Otter) aircraft, carrying seven Nepali passengers and three crew, crashed minutes before it was due to land in the Nepali capital yesterday.

26 December 1999 – Valencia, Venezuela

A Russian-made Cuban aircraft, owned by Cubana de Aviacion, crashed yesterday near the Venezuelan city of Valencia, killing all 22 people on board, said Venezuelan Infrastructure Minister, Julio Montes. He told Reuters by telephone:

It was a Russian aircraft of Cubana de Aviacion, with a capacity for 105 people but there were only 22 on board.

There were ten passengers and 12 crew members on board, he said. Montes said the aircraft crashed in an unpopulated area 8km from Valencia airport, which has been heavily used by international flights recently because the country's main international airport near Caracas has been closed by severe floods and mud-slides. Montes said the aircraft crashed while approaching for a landing at Valencia, about 100 miles west of the capital Caracas. The minister Montes, as well as Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela and the head of Civil Defence, Angel Rangel, were on their way to the crash site, civil defence officials said.

28 December 1999 – All 22 people on board a Cuban state airliner that slammed into a hillside west of Caracas on Sunday (December 26) died in the crash, Venezuela's civil defence director, Angel Rangel, said. The Yakolev-42 plane crashed in the Bejuma area of Venezuela's industrial Carabobo state, about 150km west of Caracas, after air controllers lost contact with it. Mr Rangel said:

On board there was a crew of 12 people, four Cuban passengers, four Venezuelans and two Dutch citizens.

He said rescue teams working among the wreckage, which was scattered over a one-square-kilometre area, had pulled ten bodies out so far, but had not yet identified the cause of the disaster. Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jose Vicente Rangel, said at the crash site:

In the next few hours Cuba will send a team to investigate this air accident, which the Venezuelan government profoundly regrets.

12 January 2000 – Lisbon, Portugal

Portuguese investigators said today they found no evidence of mechanical failure in an aircraft that crashed last month into a mountain in the remote, mid-Atlantic Azores islands, killing all 35 on board. A preliminary report said it "remained to be explained" why the British-built ATP twin-engined turbo-prop diverted from the alternative flight plan chosen by pilots due to bad weather. But a civil aviation official who read the report at a news conference stressed that the document sought to outline factual evidence rather than attach blame.

7 January 2000 – North Kingstown, USA

FBI bomb technicians and evidence experts, along with Egyptian investigators, today continued to sift through the recovered wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990, officials said. In December, a salvage vessel recovered about 70 per cent of the Boeing 767's wreckage from an area about 60 miles south of Martha's Vineyard, officials have said. FBI spokeswoman, Gail Marcinkiewicz, said:

They brought it up just before the holidays. It all had to be rinsed. We're just resuming.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is overseeing the investigation, said no new evidence has emerged that points to a cause to the crash. NTSB spokesman, Jamie Finch, said:

They're progressing. But any new information has not been found yet.

Once they have been cleaned and inspected for any evidence, the personal items of victims will be returned to family members by a company hired by EgyptAir, Marcinkiewiez said.

12 January 2000 – A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said today that the examination of the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990 has gone faster than expected and investigators likely will finish early next week. Investigators have been sorting the washed wreckage for a week in a hangar at Quonset Point, a former Navy base in North Kingstown. About 70 per cent of the Boeing 767 was raised during a week-long salvage operation before Christmas. Pieces of every part of the aircraft have been found and the debris has been sorted into piles according to part, but there are no plans to reconstruct the aircraft, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said. The NTSB still has not determined the cause of the crash, he said. Investigators, including experts from Boeing and engine-maker Pratt & Whitney, have been focusing on the aircraft's electrical and navigation systems, engines and exterior, Holloway said. None of the human remains have been identified so far, and the FBI is still analysing the victims' belongings, authorities said.

21 January 2000

Weeks after the last pile of debris from EgyptAir 990 was pulled from the sea, investigators say they are more convinced than ever of their original theory: the jet was crashed deliberately. The examination of the shattered Boeing 767, some 70 per cent of which was recovered from the ocean floor, has revealed no signs of a mechanical failure that would have caused the aircraft to plummet, 40 minutes into its 11-hour flight, according to three officials close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity. One government official said:

Everything leads everyone to believe that the aircraft was mechanically sound and it was doing what it was supposed to. There's just no smoking gun to indicate mechanical failure.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said there are no plans to reconstruct the aircraft, which speaks volumes about the investigation, experts said. Barry Schiff, a TWA pilot for 34 years who instructed trainees on the Boeing 767 and now serves as an aviation safety consultant, said:

I think they're fairly convinced they know what happened based on the radar data, flight data and voice data.

Investigators have said the cockpit voice recorder contained some utterance, perhaps a prayer, before the aircraft went into its fatal plunge. But Schiff said the flight and radar data alone make it clear someone forced the aircraft down. Schiff said:

My feelings and conclusions are based on the factual data made available through various sources, and to me it seems rather compelling that is what happened.

The NTSB's working theory remains the aircraft was sent into a nose dive by relief co-pilot Gamil El-Batouty, who took control of the aircraft shortly after take-off from New’York's Kennedy Airport, according to two officials close to the investigation. The FBI has been involved from the start and has uncovered no evidence of terrorism or conspiracy, according to one of the federal officials. EgyptAir and El-Batouty's family have angrily rejected the theory of an intentional crash.

23 January 2000 – EgyptAir is to offer the families of the 217 people who died in an aircraft crash off the USA a total of up to $116m in insurance payments, it has been reported. The Egyptian state-owned al-Gomhuria newspaper said that 20 families had already received some of the insurance pay-out. Company chairman, Mohammed Fahim Rayan, quoted in the paper, said relatives would not have to wait until the cause of the crash was determined to receive their payments. EgyptAir has made no official comment on the insurance question but Mr’Rayan told the paper the final insurance bill would be between $87.2m and $E116.3m. He has previously said payments to relatives would be fixed at $100,000 per passenger. That would total only $21.7m and there has been no explanation for the discrepancy.

24 January 2000 – The chairman of EgyptAir today welcomed a denial by a US official that investigators had concluded the crash of one of its aircraft last October had been caused deliberately by a pilot. Mohamed Fahim Rayyan said in a statement that he welcomed the denial by Jim Hall, chairman of the US National Transport and Safety Board which is investigating the October 31 crash of an EgyptAir Boeing 767. Hall said on Friday (January 21), responding to news reports quoting sources familiar with the inquiry as saying investigators still believed the plane was deliberately crashed by one of the pilots:

The story was wrong. No hypothesis for the cause of this accident has been accepted.

Rayyan said he hoped the media would stop creating its own theories on what happened, especially since investigations were still under way and insurance companies were compensating families of the victims.

10 January 2000 – Zurich, Switzerland

A small passenger aircraft carrying ten people crashed shortly after taking off from an airport near Zurich, killing everyone on board. The aircraft burst into flames but the precise death toll was unknown. The Saab 340, belonging to Swiss regional airline, Crossair, had seven passengers and three crew on board. It crashed after taking off from Kloten Airport, Niederhasli, for a flight to Dresden.

The Swiss commuter Saab 340 bound for Germany crashed shortly after taking off from Zurich this evening, killing all ten people on board, officials said. The Saab 340, Crossair flight LX498 to Dresden, was carrying seven passengers and three crew when it went down around 1800 hrs (1700 UTC) in a fireball near the village of Niederhasli, near the end of the airport runway. SAirGroup, which owns the regional airline, Crossair, as well as the flag carrier Swissair, said in a statement that all on board had been killed. There was no immediate indication of the cause of the crash, which happened in cool, drizzly weather. The airport said wreckage was strewn over 500 metres. Officials said the pilot had not sent any distress signal before the plane disappeared from radar screens, ten minutes after take-off. Crossair said the plane was built in 1991 and had logged 24,000 flight hours.

11 January 2000 – As darkness fell today, police and firefighters suspended their search for the "black box" flight recorders which could explain why a commuter aircraft crashed, killing all ten people on board. Crossair Flight 498 (Saab 340B HB-AKK) went down in a fireball yesterday, shortly after taking off from Zurich's international airport in drizzly weather. It was heading for Dresden. Debris from the aircraft was buried in mud at the crash site, hampering search and recovery efforts. The wreckage was strewn over 500 metres of terrain near the village of Niederhasli. Investigators were still seeking the cause of the crash, the first in Crossair's 20-year history. The crew consisted of a Moldovan pilot, a Slovak co-pilot and a French stewardess. The company said the aircraft had been off the ground for just two minutes when radar contact was lost. The last contact with the pilot was recorded about 30 seconds earlier. After this final radio message, the aircraft swerved to the right, although the normal flight path would have taken it in the opposite direction, Crossair said. The reasons for the unusual manoeuvre remain unknown. The Swiss federal office in charge of investigating air crashes said it had launched an official probe into the crash, the fourth involving a Saab 340. Three of the four crashed just after take-off, an airline spokesman said. Crossair said:

Since last night, Crossair has conducted a special technical inspection of its remaining Saab 340s.

Four of the seven passengers on board the aircraft were German citizens. Others were a Frenchman, a Spaniard and a Swiss national.

Emergency services in Switzerland were today still searching the wreckage of the Crossair Saab 340B (HB-AKK) which crashed outside Zurich on Monday evening (January 10). So far, neither the cockpit voice recorder or the flight data recorder had been recovered and airline officials said it may be some time before the cause of the crash is established. In the meantime, Crossair have offered immediate financial compensation to the families of the ten victims. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over a wide area and many parts were buried deep in a crater at the site where the aircraft first hit the ground. Swiss rescue services said the recovery operation was now being hampered by wet weather. Many crucial parts of the aircraft, including the cockpit voice recorder, were sinking into the mud. However, further details of the flight's last moments were emerging. Apparently, the aircraft was airborne for only two minutes before disappearing from radar screens. Air traffic control at Zurich said the aircraft inexplicably turned to starboard, instead of port, after take-off, and when the pilot was asked for clarification, he replied only, "stand by". After this, there was no further contact with the aircraft but witnesses reported hearing a loud bang and seeing the aircraft burst into flames. The aircraft's passengers included four German citizens, one Swiss, one Spanish and one French. The pilot, who came from Moldova, was one of Crossair's most experienced members of staff, with over 8,000 hours flying time. The airline has offered immediate financial assistance of $15,000 per victim.

12 January 2000 – Crossair was checking its Saab 340 fleet today following the fatal crash of one of the commuter planes (Saab 340B HB- AKK), and investigators recovered the "black box" flight recorders that could hold vital clues. Crossair Flight 498 went down on Monday evening, shortly after take-off from Zurich's international airport, bound for Dresden, Germany. All ten people on board were killed. The plane banked to the starboard after take-off, while the normal flight path would been to port. The cause of the crash is unknown. Today's checks were focusing on the steering controls. The flight data and voice recorders were recovered in the muddy field where the plane came down in a fireball, both heavily damaged, Crossair said. Meanwhile, checks of the remaining aircraft continued. Crossair said all of the Saab 340s were checked on Monday night prior to the accident, and these checks showed no "safety- relevant damages." Crossair said in a statement:

After the loss of a Saab 340 Cityliner Monday evening, Crossair is subjecting its remaining 13 aircraft of this type to a further, more intensive technical inspection.

Latest inspections of five of the Saab aircraft found no damage, which could have affected safety. Crossair said only a limited number of specialists could carry out the extensive inspection of the 340s, the smallest aircraft in its fleet. The process led to cancellations of 21 flights today. It said all the aircraft should be back in the air tomorrow.

12 January 2000 – Lisbon, Portugal

Portuguese investigators said today they found no evidence of mechanical failure in an aircraft that crashed last month into a mountain in the remote, mid-Atlantic Azores islands, killing all 35 on board. A preliminary report said it "remained to be explained" why the British-built ATP twin-engined turbo-prop diverted from the alternative flight plan chosen by pilots due to bad weather. But a civil aviation official that read the report at a news conference stressed that the document sought to outline factual evidence rather than attach blame.

13 January 2000 – South Korea

The South Korean government will conduct special safety inspections by June on all 107 aircraft of Korean Air, which has been troubled by a string of accidents in recent years, officials said today. Aviation records indicate more than 750 people have died in a series of disasters involving Korean aircraft in the past 16 years. Lim E-young, an official at the Transportation Ministry's Aviation Safety Bureau, said:

The inspection is the first of its kind in our country and reflects the government's deep concern about the safety problems of Korean Air.

The checks, Lim said, will be conducted in two stages, the first by February for nine Boeing 747 aircraft that are more than 18 years old, and the second by June for other aircraft. Just before the government decision, Korean Air said it had grounded four aging B-747 passenger and cargo aircraft, as part of its programs to beef up safety. The airline also announced the hiring of US aviation expert as one of its vice presidents in charge of safety programs. Harry D. Greenberg, 58, moved to Korean Air after 35 years of service with Delta Air Lines. In Delta, Greenberg worked mostly in safety-related areas, Korean Air officials said.

13 January 2000 – sea off the coast of Libya

A Swiss-registered charter Shorts 360-300 (HB-AAM) with 41 people on board, mostly Libyan and British oil workers, crashed in the sea off Libya today and 15 people were feared dead, Swiss officials said. Zurich- based Avisto AG, the operator of the Shorts SD360, said the plane, flying from Tripoli, had made an emergency landing in the sea during its approach to Marsa el Brega, Libya's main petro-chemical complex. A Transport Ministry spokeswoman in Berne said "We believe that 15 people died" adding that a search for victims was under way.

The Libyan news agency, Jana, quoted officials as saying 18 people had been rescued. An Avisto spokesman told Swiss radio 16 of those on board were from Libya, 13 from the UK, two from Canada, three from India, three from Croatia, three from the Philippines and one from Pakistan. There were two pilots and one flight attendant. There was no immediate word on the nationalities of those feared dead, or on the course of the Libyan rescue operation. An official at Libya's Sirte Oil Co in Tripoli confirmed the crash and said rescue operations were under way, but was unable to give further details. Avisto operates planes for Sirte Oil Co, shuttling oil workers between Tripoli in the west, oilfields and the company's offices at Marsa el Brega in eastern Libya. The ministry said in a statement:

Around 1230, Swiss time, (1130 UTC) the pilot began a normal approach to Brega airport. About five minutes later he reported that both engines had cut out and announced he was attempting an emergency landing on water. The aircraft hit the water just before the Libyan coast and sank.

Avisto director, Franz Fassbind, also told Swiss television that first reports were that the engines had stopped. A Swiss accident investigator was to travel to Tripoli from Ottawa, where he was helping probe the crash of a Swissair plane near Halifax in September 1998. Marsa el Brega is operated by Libya's National Petrochemicals Company (NAPETCO). A Shorts spokesman said the plane had been delivered new to Avisto in 1990.

14 January 2000 – A total of 23 people probably died when a Swiss-registered charter aircraft carrying 41 people, mostly Libyan and British oil workers, crashed into the sea off Libya, the Swiss Transport Ministry said today. The ministry said in a statement:

The Air Accident Investigations Office has learned that 23 people were most probably killed when the Shorts 360/300 aircraft crashed during an emergency landing on water.

It said the bodies of five Britons, three Libyans, two Canadians, two Croatians, two Filipinos, one Tunisian, one Pakistani and one Indian had already been recovered. Rescue crews were still searching for three Libyans, two Britons and one Filipino who were aboard. Ten Libyans, six Britons and two Indians survived and were being treated in hospital. The two pilots were among the ten Libyans who survived, it said.

Seven Britons survived and five were among the 17 people who died when a Swiss-registered charter aircraft crashed in the sea off Libya, Britain's Foreign Office said today. A spokesman said one Briton was still missing. He said:

All 13 Britons were male. All the injured are being treated at the Sirte Oil Company Clinic.

A British Embassy official in Tripoli said that poor weather was hampering efforts to search for passengers still missing. He said:

The search recommenced this morning at first light both offshore and onshore along the coastline … but weather conditions are not good.

15 January 2000 – Bad weather on Saturday hampered the sea search for five people missing after a Swiss-owned aircraft (Shorts 360-300 HB-AAM), carrying mainly Libyan and British oil workers, crashed on Thursday (January 13) off Libya, killing at least 17 people. The search was for three Libyans, one Briton and one Filipino still unaccounted for after the aircraft crashed in the Mediterranean on Thursday. An oil company official said the search, involving 15 divers, several ships and an aircraft, was suspended because of darkness last night and had not resumed this morning because of bad weather. The official said:

The wind is strong and waves are swelling. Our reinforced rescue teams are awaiting the calm to resume operations.

The aircraft was equipped with two "black box" flight recorders.

21 January 2000 – Rescue teams in Libya have recovered two flight recorders from the wreck of the aircraft that crashed off the country's coast last week, killing at least 18 people. The voice and data recorders were found by divers and are now being sent to the UK to the British Department of Transport's Air Accident Investigation Branch to be examined.

30 January 2000 – Abidjan

A Kenyan Airlines Airbus 310 plane crashed into the sea off Ivory Coast today, after taking off from the airport in the main city of Abidjan, airport officials said. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board but the officials put the number at more than 120. The plane was heading from Abidjan to Lagos.

31 January 2000 – A Kenya Airways Airbus 310 with 179 people on board crashed into the sea and sank after take-off from Ivory Coast on Sunday, triggering a night search for survivors. Rescuers in small boats said they fished at least one person out of the water alive, and saw corpses and wreckage floating at the scene of the crash about 1,000 metres offshore. The survivor, a Nigerian, said the plane crashed about three minutes after take-off, rescuers said. Charles Dgaze, a casual worker at Abidjan airport whose runway lies close to the sea, said:

I swam out to where the plane was and saw the lights. Then the plane sank out of sight.

He said he saw no one come out and it had been impossible to get inside the sinking aircraft. More than three hours after the crash, two helicopters with searchlights and small boats scoured the sea next to the international airport on the edge of the main city, Abidjan. Local people gathered on the beach and stared out past the surf of one metre high waves. Some swam out to sea, searching for survivors. Witnesses said the lights of the plane had been briefly visible on the surface of the water, then vanished. There was no immediate sign of the bulk of the aircraft, according to emergency services radio reports. Airport officials said flight KQ431 heading for Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, came down shortly after take-off from Abidjan airport. It had earlier flown from Nairobi in Kenya. Andre Desson, a local resident, said:

I heard the sound of take-off and then the noise of the plane hitting the water.

Resident Boni Abyao added:

There was light on the surface.

An Abidjan airport official said most of the passengers were Nigerian. A spokesman in Amsterdam for KLM airline, which part-owns Kenya Airways, said there might have been a sandstorm in the area at the time, but he did not know if that contributed to the disaster. At Lagos airport, KLM officials said the flight had been due to land there before Abidjan but had been diverted by the harmattan, a dusty seasonal wind from the deserts of north Africa. Kenya Airways initially said there were 169 people on the plane but revised the figure to 179, ten crew and 169 passengers. Airline spokesman, Koome Mwambia in Nairobi, said:

This is our first accident. We are trying to establish the names of the passengers. The next level is to begin contacting their families.

Kenya Airways said it was sending 29 officials and investigators to Abidjan to help the investigation into the crash of one of its planes late last night. Airline official, Francis Maina, said around 20 officials would leave the Kenyan capital for Abidjan later today, to help investigate the crash of flight KQ431. The Airbus A310, carrying 169 passengers and ten crew, crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from Abidjan.

An armada of small fishing vessels and navy vessels scoured the ocean off Ivory Coast today for survivors from a Kenya Airways crash in which around 170 people are feared to have died. Rescuers and medical staff said at least nine and possibly ten survivors had been thrown clear in the crash last night and taken ashore but the body count rose rapidly after day-break, with at least 49 corpses fished from the sea. Kenya Airways said 168 passengers, most of them Nigerian nationals, and 11 crew were on board. Dr Moussa Soumahoro, a doctor at the country's top private clinic, said:

We have taken in nine injured people.

He said one of the nine survivors was seriously hurt. Vessels rescued eight people from the water. An ambulance worker said a ninth survivor had managed to swim ashore. Some witnesses reported hearing bangs as the aircraft went down. Other witnesses spoke of seeing lights at the surface before the aircraft went down. Rescuers quoted one survivor, a Nigerian, as saying that the aircraft had gone done three minutes after take-off. Medical worker, Alain Thonar, said that the aircraft sent the control tower a radio message, saying that it was going down, one minute after take-off. The nationality of the dead and of all but one of the survivors was not immediately clear. Kenya Airways technical director, Steve Clarke, told a news conference in Nairobi that the aircraft was bought new in October, 1986, and was being flown by a very experienced pilot. Rescuers searched for more than three hours after the crash, before they found the first sign of wreckage.

1 February 2000 – Airline industry officials were gathering in Abidjan today to begin an inquiry into the crash of a Kenya Airways aircraft off Ivory Coast that killed 169 passengers and crew. Ten people are known to have survived Sunday's (Jan 30) crash, but rescuers late yesterday gave up hope of finding anyone else alive. State television in Ivory Coast said that 95 bodies had been pulled from the sea. It said the search for the remaining bodies would resume today, and investigators could also begin the search for the "black box" flight data and cockpit voice recorders The plane crashed in deep water around three km off the coast and state television warned that the search could take days if not weeks. Ivorian newspapers were beginning to question the incapacity of their poorly-equipped rescue services to respond quickly after the aircraft went down at around 2108 UTC, Sunday night. There was no government comment on why the crash might have happened and a planned briefing by air safety officials failed to take place. Many of the bodies were pulled out of the sea by men working on a French-owned mfv Via Avenir. Local fishermen in canoes, pleasure boats and tugs from Abidjan port also took part in the search, joined later by an Ivorian navy vessel. Military personnel from a French base in Abidjan were also involved. Kenya Airways said the aircraft was not known to have any technical problems and a spokesman declined to comment on speculation that desert sands blown up by strong seasonal winds could have affected its engines. Experts from Kenya Airways and Airbus Industrie, the European manufacturers of the plane, were due in Abidjan yesterday evening to assist Ivory Coast crash investigators.

As the search drifted further out into the ocean, officials said there was no immediate sign of the main part of the wreck and the all-important "black- box" flight data and cockpit voice recorders of flight KQ431. Captain Thieirry Genries, a French military captain, in an inflatable rubber boat along with six fellow soldiers, said:

Our mission is to help the technicians and specialists to find the aircraft's (flight recorder) boxes.

He said that they were using sophisticated sonar equipment and were optimistic of finding the main part of the wreck. Three vessels, including an Ivorian naval cruiser and a tug, criss-crossed the sea 28km from the coast today. On land, senior officials from Kenya Airways held talks with the Ivorian civil aviation authorities, who were directing the search operation. There was no official comment on the search. The chief executive and managing director of Kenya Airways said that strong currents had probably dragged the wreckage further out to sea since the crash some 3,000 metres from the shore. Richard Nyaga said:

We do not know where it is. I'm told that the current is fairly strong.

Nyaga said Kenya Airways had brought a team of 60 people to Ivory Coast, including technical experts and counsellors. The Francophone African civil aviation safety agency, ASECNA, will be closely involved in the investigations, as will experts from Airbus Industrie, manufacturers of the aircraft. Officials said experts from London would help identify the dead.

2 February 2000 – Rescuers using special tracking equipment from France may have located the "black box" flight data recorder from a crashed Kenya Airways Airbus A310 off Ivory Coast, the chief investigator said today. Jean Abonouan, Ivory Coast's civil aviation director, said:

They've heard some vibrations. Tomorrow morning we are going to send divers to see if it is indeed the black box.

Abonouan told an earlier news conference that teams were using special equipment sent from France for locating emergency signals from flight data recorders in the sea. Effoli Kouakou, a senior official at Ivory Coast's National Civil Aviation Agency, said searchers had found a wheel and a retaining bar from the aircraft's undercarriage off the resort town of Grand Bassam, more than 30km west of Abidjan. Kenya Airways Managing Director, Richard Nyaga, told a news conference 86 bodies had been recovered, of which 26 had been positively identified. Ivorian state television had previously reported a total of 95 bodies recovered. Nigerian Emmanuel Madu, who survived the crash, said:

The whole plane crumbled. I wouldn't call it an explosion, I may call it an implosion.

Nyaga said the airline would spare no effort or money to assist survivors and families of victims. The airline said in Nairobi it had also flown ten counsellors and 21 divers from the Kenyan navy to Abidjan. Nyaga said he was unable to discuss the technical aspects of the crash at this stage. He said there had been no distress signal from the aircraft. Peter Wakahia, Kenya's chief air crash investigator, said both pilot and co-pilot were "very highly trained and very highly experienced". "We have no reason to have any doubts that the aircraft was properly maintained", he said, adding that the plane had undergone a routine minor inspection in mid-January. Abonouan told the news conference he would ask the Ivorian government to purchase specialist equipment for finding flight data recorders at sea.

4 February 2000 – Divers trying to retrieve the flight data recorders of a Kenya Airways Airbus A310 (5Y-BEN) which crashed off Ivory Coast said today they had seen fuselage of the aircraft for the first time. A member of the diving party said:

The fuselage is completely broken up into little pieces and there are lots of bodies down there.

Investigators located the flight recorders on Tuesday, using special equipment flown in from France to detect emergency signals emitted by the units. A dive to pin-point the recorders yesterday was delayed by meetings between the Ivorian crash investigators, Airbus representatives, Kenyan engineers and divers. Investigators hope the recorders will help them find out why the aircraft crashed. Relatives of victims have voiced frustration at what they see as delays in retrieving bodies.

4 February 2000 – Divers said today they had retrieved one of two flight information recorders after finding the splintered fuselage of Kenya Airways Airbus A310 (5Y-BEN). A diving team sent by crash investigators to recover the aircraft's flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the seabed, fished out one of the units and rushed it back to shore in an ice box. A French amateur diver who was helping Ivorian crash investigators with the operation said he had seen bodies near the seabed at the crash site. He said, shortly after surfacing from a dive:

We haven't seen the second black box. There are a lot of bodies down there.

5 February 2000 – Divers resumed their search today for more bodies and a second "black box" recorder from the wreckage of Kenya Airways Airbus A310 (5Y-BEN). Sources close to the search and salvage operation reported controversy over where data from a flight recorder already retrieved from the Atlantic seabed should be processed. They said Kenya Airways was objecting to plans by Ivorian authorities, who are in charge of investigations into the crash, to have the data analysed in France, where the aircraft's manufacturer Airbus Industrie is based, in the city of Toulouse. Kenya Airways wants the analysis to be handled on what it sees as neutral ground – possibly in the USA, Canada or Germany – rather than France. A senior Kenya Airways engineer said in Abidjan:

Kenya Airways is absolutely opposed to the black box going to France.

The hull of the aircraft was insured for $40 million, insurance sources in London said. There has been no indication of how the Ivorians intend to attempt to bring up the smashed fuselage, which is lying at a depth of about 50 metres and about one nautical mile offshore.

31 January 2000 – Los Angeles, USA

Rescue teams are searching the Pacific for survivors after an Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD 83 (N963AS) crashed into the sea northwest of Los Angeles. The airline said there were 83 passengers and five crew on board Flight 261, which was en route to San Francisco from the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta. So far the US Coastguard has recovered several bodies from the sea but found no-one alive. Tom Cowan, of the US Coastguard, said they had not given up hope of survivors. Conditions were mild, he said, but darkness was hampering the efforts of Navy and private ships in the area. Ron’Wilson, a spokesman for the San Francisco airport, said the crew of the aircraft had reported mechanical difficulties with the stabiliser trim and had asked to land at Los’Angeles. Alaska Airlines spokesman, Jack’Evans, said the plane had had no previous stabiliser problems, and it had gone through a routine service in Seattle on Sunday. The plane is believed to be in 700ft of water and a Coastguard spokesman said it may be upside down. A BBC correspondent said the plane plunged 17,000 ft and disappeared off radar screens before crashing into the sea. Brad Burger, a spokesman for Alaska Airlines, said the aircraft was manufactured in 1992 and been through 14,350 take offs and landings. He said the plane was relatively young and underwent a series of safety checks in January.

1 February 2000 – A stabiliser problem alone would probably not have caused yesterday's crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 off the coast of southern California, pilots and others familiar with the aircraft said today. A problem with stabiliser trim, radioed from Flight 261, was about the only clue available early on to investigators trying to determine what caused yesterday's crash. But pilots and safety experts said it sounded more like a symptom than the primary cause. A pilot with 12 years experience on the closely-related DC-9 said:

I've had the trim fail. It's annoying but it isn't dangerous.

Said David Stempler, Air Travellers Association president and publisher of the Airline Accident Report Card:

There has really been nothing in the history of the airplane that would indicate it would be susceptible to this kind of (stabiliser) problem.

The Coast Guard reported hearing a pinging noise that may be from the plane's flight data or cockpit voice recorder. Both devices will be critical to determining what went wrong.

Hope turned to despair in the seas off southern California today, as the search for 88 people on board a crashed Alaska Airline flight turned up only wreckage and body parts. The "black boxes" have yet to be recovered from the aircraft's fuselage, thought to be lying 700ft under the waves. Only four bodies – those of two women, a man and a child – and 12 boxes of debris had been recovered. The shattered aircraft seats, personal belongings and twisted metal that littered the surface yesterday evening had either been swallowed by the waves or picked up on a flotilla of small boats and Coast Guard vessels after a night-long search. Relatives of those lost were overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness. The passenger list released by Alaska showed families of four or five members, some of them children, had been wiped out. Alaska Airlines officials fended off media reports suggesting a connection between the crash and a year-long investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration of its aircraft maintenance procedures. Spokesman Jack Evans said the inquiry was related to record keeping rather than safety issues and the allegations involved two specific MD-80 aircraft. The aircraft that crashed was a longer distance, MD-83 version and was built in 1992. Aviation experts said the MD-80 accident rate is 0.41 accidents per 1 million departures, which is less than one-quarter the industry average for all aircraft. Alaska Airlines chief executive, John Kelly, said the airline had an "impeccable safety record and a maintenance record that I would hold up to the industry."

2 February 2000 – US crash investigators say the pilot of the Alaska Airlines flight struggled for six minutes to overcome a mechanical problem before the aircraft crashed. They have released preliminary transcripts of air traffic control conversations with the stricken aircraft. The transcripts reveal that 15 minutes after being cleared to continue on his flight up the Californian coast to San Francisco, the pilot radioed that he was having difficulty controlling the aircraft. A short while later he revealed that a system which keeps the aircraft stable had jammed. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, was subsequently cleared for an emergency landing in Los Angeles. The crew acknowledged the permission and that was the last that was heard from them. Accident investigators are now hoping that one of the flight recorders could shed more light on what went wrong.

The US Coast Guard, overriding protests from families of the missing, called off its hunt today for survivors of Monday's (January 31) crash in the Pacific Ocean of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 saying none of the 88 people could have lived this long in the frigid waters. Vice’Adm, Tom Collins, said an intense and extensive search had found no survivors and the Coast Guard had to move from a search-and-rescue operation to a search for wreckage. Collins said:

The water temperature and time dynamic far exceeded the estimate of survivability … We have reached the point where we must proceed to the next phase.

His announcement came after more than 41 hours of intense searching of more than 1,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast, north of Los Angeles, by a small fleet of Navy, Coast Guard and commercial vessels. M diving support vessel Kellie Chouest, which is used by the Navy to find wreckage, arrived at the site of the crash today, along with the USS Cleveland to begin the search for the aircraft and its black box flight and data recorders. Kellie Chouest will send a robot vessel to the site where the main part of the aircraft is believed resting. James Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN in an interview that his agency had obtained tapes of the doomed jet-liner's crew trying to fix control problems with the help of a ground maintenance crew. Hall said those conversations, though marred by what he called "significant background noise", might provide vital clues into what went wrong in the minutes before Flight 261 disappeared from radar screens and crashed into the water. An NTSB spokesman said they also were interviewing the crews of four other aircraft in the area at the time, who may have seen the aircraft go down.

An unmanned vehicle recovered one of the "black box" recorders today that could hold the answer to the cause of the Alaska Airlines crash. The remote controlled vehicle, operating in up to 700ft of water, brought up the cockpit voice recorder, said Terry Williams, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. A similar device that records flight data was not immediately recovered, he said. Searchers had a fix on the data recorder using pinging signals emitted by its locator beacon, he said. The recorder was brought to the surface clutched in the mechanical claw of the boxy yellow submersible. Authorities also began analysing recordings of the pilots' conversations with a Seattle maintenance crew, which were made while the pilots tried to control the aircraft in the terrifying moments before it nosedived into the sea. On shore, investigators interviewed airline employees about a report that a different crew of pilots complained of problems with the aircraft's horizontal stabiliser as they headed toward Puerto Vallarta on Monday (January 31). Meanwhile a jammed horizontal stabiliser forced an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-80 to land in Phoenix 20 minutes after take-off today, said Phil Frame, a spokesman for the NTSB in Washington. The aircraft, which had been headed toward Dallas, is part of the same series of aircraft as the Alaska MD/83 that crashed. Federal investigators were having the flight data recorder from the American Airlines aircraft sent to them. Frame knew of no link between the American Airlines incident and the crash investigation, but "it may have piqued their interest." Investigators interviewed pilots who were flying in the area of the crash and may have seen Flight 261 go down. The audio tapes of the pilots and the Seattle maintenance crew apparently capture an exchange that took place as the pilots tried to troubleshoot what was going wrong, Jim Hall, chairman of the NTSB, said on morning talk shows. Hall said:

Obviously these pilots were struggling to maintain control of this aircraft for a significant period of time. It's going to be very important to this investigation.

3 February 2000 – Washington

The cockpit voice recorder recovered from the downed Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-80 (N963AS) appeared to be in good condition, the NTSB's chief said today. NTSB chief Jim Hall said:

Early indications are that we ought to have a good recording which is extremely important in the investigation of the crash of Flight 261.

Hall said the recorder had arrived in Washington and was being taken to the NTSB's laboratory where it would be examined. Hall said NTSB officials in California were today interviewing the crew who flew the aircraft on the previous leg, as well as any people involved in servicing the aircraft in Mexico – its last stop before the crash.

The flight data recorder on board ill-fated Alaska Airlines MD-83 (N963AS), Flight 261, which crashed into the Pacific Ocean on Monday (January 31) killing all 88 people on board, has been recovered, the NTSB Board said today. This means that both "black boxes" on board the airliner are now in the hands of officials trying to determine the cause of the crash. Investigators found the cockpit voice recorder yesterday and sent it to Washington for analysis. The flight data recorder was found not far from the cockpit voice recorder.

US investigators said today pilots in the Alaska Airlines jet that crashed talked of the aircraft flying upside down in the final moments before it plunged in the Pacific. NTSB chief Jim Hall told a news conference the crew had made references in a tape retrieved from the wreckage that the aircraft was "inverted", which was consistent with eye-witness reports of the crash. Hall also revealed the crew had been wrestling for some time with a problem with the plane's tail-mounted stabiliser. He said the cockpit recording, of slightly more than 30 minutes, opened with a discussion of the problem. He said:

The crew had difficulty controlling the airplane's tendency to pitch nose down. The airplane descended but the crew was able to arrest the descent.

The pilots managed to stabilise the situation for a while but in preparing the aircraft for an emergency landing at Los Angeles airport, lost control for a final time.

A robot submarine today recovered the flight data recorder of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N963AS) from the ocean canyon where the aircraft came to rest after slamming into the sea, killing all 88 people on board, officials said. The recorder was recovered by the remote-controlled robot in 645ft of water, not far from the spot where searchers retrieved the cockpit voice recorder yesterday. The second "black box" was taken on board m diving support vessel Kellie Chouest. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said it would be rushed to Washington, where investigators were already studying the cockpit voice recorder for clues to why the aircraft crashed. Witnesses have described the aircraft nose-diving into the sea in a corkscrew motion, twisting and turning in a "continuous roll" as it plunged from 17,000 feet, eventually landing upside down, a few miles off the coast of southern California, investigators said. NTSB chairman, Jim Hall, described it as if the aircraft was "flying itself." Hall said NTSB officials in California were interviewing the crew who flew the Alaska Airlines aircraft on the previous leg, as well as any people involved in servicing the aircraft in Mexico, on its last stop before the crash. John Hammerschmidt, leading NTSB investigators at the crash site, said accounts of the dying seconds of the flight had been obtained from three witnesses – two Skywest airline pilots and the pilot of a private aircraft who watched as the Alaska Airways aircraft went down.

7 February 2000 – Families of victims killed in the Alaska Airlines crash may have to wait six months or more for officials to identify the remains of their loved ones. The NTSB said yesterday that it could be midsummer before DNA tests confirm the identities of the partial human remains that Navy crews are collecting as they map and videotape the ocean floor near the crash site. Ventura County sheriff's spokesman, Eric Nishimoto, said that out of the partial human remains recovered, a few dozen are possibly identifiable through dental records, distinguishing marks or personal property such as wallets. However, the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office, which is responsible for identifying the victims, has said that it has several nearly complete bodies. None has yet been identified. Before any pieces of the aircraft are brought to the surface, the NTSB wants a detailed picture of how the wreckage is distributed on the ocean floor. Spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency will decide exactly what will be hauled up, after a review of the reams of video footage. The debris area is about ten miles offshore in the Santa Barbara Channel, covering an area about the size of a football field in water 640ft deep.

8 February 2000 – Radar data shows a piece of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 may have broken off, seconds before the aircraft plunged into the Pacific, investigators announced today. Analysis of radar and the flight data recorders portray a terrifying final 12 minutes, during which the MD-83 jet-liner went into a 7,000-foot dive, then regained some semblance of control for about nine minutes. Then it pitched nose-down, rolled upside down and plunged 17,900 feet into the ocean in just over a minute. NTSB Chairman James Hall's detailed description didn't fix a cause for the crash. The new data showed the pilots struggling with the aircraft's horizontal stabiliser. There was no immediate indication whether the part that may have come off the aircraft was from the stabilizer. Hall displayed a chart at a Washington, DC, briefing showing the aircraft's path as determined by radar. The chart marks a point just before the final plunge where radar picked up a reading that could indicate a piece separating from the aircraft and drifting with the wind as it fell into the ocean. Navy vessels have been sent to search the sea floor where the object would have landed, about four miles from the main body of the aircraft's wreckage, Hall said. Hall said that video mapping of the crash site was complete and an eight-foot section of the left horizontal stabilizer and some portions of the central stabilizer had been recovered. The remains of three victims had been positively identified and the families notified.

9 February 2000 – A key part of the tail mechanism from the Alaska Airlines aircraft that crashed last week has been found damaged in a way that could offer clues to the cause of the accident, US safety investigators said today. NTSB chief, Jim Hall, said Navy salvage experts had found part of the screw mechanism that is driven by electric motors to move the MD-83's horizontal stabiliser. The jackscrew was stripped of its thread, he said at the Chicago Auto Show. He said if the screw was damaged before the impact of the aircraft hitting the water, that could explain why pilots were having problems operating the stabiliser. "If it was before the impact then it is very significant in terms of determining what caused the crash", Hall said. Hall said metallurgists were heading to California to examine the piece of aircraft wreckage and to determine whether the screw was damaged before the aircraft slammed into the Pacific. Navy divers were searching for another piece of wreckage about four miles from the crash site that might have fallen off the aircraft before it crashed and could also provide important clues about the cause of the accident. If the breakaway piece turns out to be part of a control surface, it could explain why disaster struck, even though the pilots had brought the aircraft under control after initial trouble.

9 February 2000 – Airlines today began a concerted inspection of the tail mechanisms on McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and related aircraft, after safety investigators found damage to a key screw retrieved from the wreckage of an Alaska Airlines MD-80 (N963AS). The electrically-driven jackscrew controls the tail-mounted horizontal stabiliser that the crew of the doomed Alaska Airlines Flight 261 had complained about before crashing into the Pacific Ocean on January 31. All 88 people on board died. NTSB officials were trying to determine if the damage to the screw came before the impact but Alaska Airlines and AMR Corp's American Airlines said they were making immediate checks. Alaska Airlines said it expected to have inspected all 34 of its MD-80 series passenger jets by the end of today. American Airlines said it would inspect all 284 of its MD-80 and MD-90 passenger jets over the next week for the jackscrew and its mechanical stops which limit the stabiliser from exceeding its maximum angles of movement. A Boeing Co. spokesman said an announcement could come shortly on advice it was giving to customers on inspections of the tail mechanism. Since the crash, Boeing has already cautioned airlines against extensive trouble-shooting in the air of stabiliser problems and warned that excessive ground testing of the stabiliser motors may overheat them. Safety board chairman, Jim Hall, said in Chicago earlier today that if the jackscrew was damaged before the impact of the aircraft, it could explain why pilots were having problems operating the stabiliser. The Federal Aviation Administration has the power to make inspections or other work on the MD-80 tail mechanism mandatory, by issuing an urgent airworthiness directive, but so far has no plans to do so, a spokesman said today. The Navy is also searching for another piece of wreckage, about four miles from the crash site, which might have fallen off the aircraft before it crashed and could also provide important clues about the cause of the accident. Radar data of the aircraft's path from Puerto Vallatia, Mexico, to the crash site, showed what may have been a piece of the aircraft separate and travel with the prevailing wind, in the opposite direction to the aircraft's final dive.

11 February 2000 – Two Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft were grounded today after problems were found in the jackscrews, a focus of the investigation into the crash of Alaska Flight 261 (MD-83 N963AS). The problems were discovered in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, during inspections that started after a damaged section of the jackscrew was pulled from the wreckage of Flight 261. The aircraft "were found to have metal filings or shavings in or around the horizontal stabiliser jackscrews", said Ted Lopatkiewiez, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. "And so they are being withheld from service until our investigators can get there and look at them. Our investigators will be getting to them today". Yesterday, Boeing Co. urged all airlines that fly MD-80s and related aircraft to inspect their fleets for evidence of damage. Several, including Alaska, had started their inspections before the manufacturer's announcement. Alaska checked 31 of its 34 MD-80s, and found two with shavings around the jackscrew. An airline spokesman refused to comment further. Nearly 70 airlines world-wide fly about 2,000 of the aircraft being inspected. All major US airlines had an inspection program under way today. Alaska, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines started their inspections before Boeing issued its recommendation, and they cautioned that the action could result in some minor scheduling delays. Delta said no problems had been found in initial inspections. Other than Alaska, the other airlines, including Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and US Airways, did not immediately disclose their findings. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would study the inspection records and order further action if it found evidence of a safety problem.

US federal aviation officials have ordered emergency inspections on all McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft following last week's Alaska Airlines (MD-83 N963AS) crash and problems with two more of its aircraft yesterday. In all three cases, metallic debris has been found in the mechanism controlling the horizontal stabiliser on the tail. The pilots of the doomed Flight 261 complained of problems with the stabiliser minutes before it crashed off the coast of California. All 88 people on board the aircraft died. The Federal Aviation Administration has given airlines three days to conduct the work. FAA associate administrator, Tom McSweeny, said:

We want it done right; we want it done thorough.

The order applies to the MD-RF series, MD-90s, Boeing-717s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9s. There are 1,100 such US-registered aircraft and another 1,000 world-wide used by about 70 airlines in total. The FAA said it was notifying international authorities of its actions. Several airlines have already begun checking their fleets following advice from the aircraft maker, Boeing. Two Alaska Airlines MD-80s were grounded yesterday after problems were found with jackscrews – large screws used to hold together pieces of the stabiliser system. A damaged section of jackscrew with its thread stripped off was recovered this week with debris from the wreck of the MD-83 about ten miles off the Californian coast. A spokesman for the American National Transportation Safety Board, Ted Lopatkiewiez, said the grounded aircraft were found to have metal filings or shavings in or around the horizontal stabiliser jackscrews.

They are being withheld from service until our investigators can get there and look at them.

Delta Air Lines said today it was removing two of its McDonnell Douglas MD-90 aircraft from passenger service, for closer inspection, after making government-ordered checks for tail problems which may have played a role in last week's Alaska Airlines crash. Delta spokeswoman, Peggy Estes, said some residue had been discovered in the tail-mounted horizontal stabiliser and the airline wanted to determine whether it was from normal wear. Estes said:

We have temporarily removed two MD-90s from passenger service so we can examine both of them more closely.

The Federal Aviation Administration has given airlines three days to examine a jackscrew and nut which drives the horizontal stabiliser in a family of related aircraft that also includes the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, the MD-80 and the new Boeing 717. The tail mechanism was found damaged in the wreckage of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N963AS), which plunged into the Pacific Ocean off California on January 31, killing all 88 people on board. Metallic debris was also found during inspections of two other Alaska Airlines aircraft yesterday, prompting the FAA order. Earlier today, Northwest Airlines said it had replaced the jackscrew in one of its DC-9s. Delta said it had so far looked at about 50 per cent of the 136 aircraft in its fleet covered by the FAA order.

12 February 2000 – A nation-wide inspection of 1,100 aircraft, touched off by an Alaska Airlines crash which killed 88 people, has turned up 15 tail part problems in aircraft from eight airlines, Federal Aviation officials said today. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, adding that it was too early to draw any conclusions:

The findings ranged from metal shavings found in jackscrew lubricant to metallic residue in the grease and a jackscrew with no lubricant.

The pilots of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N963AS) had complained of problems controlling the rear stabiliser before the aircraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast on January 31, killing all 88 people on board. The FAA checks, ordered after damaged tail mechanisms were found in two other Alaska Airlines aircraft, cover all US-registered MD-80, MD-90, DC-9 and Boeing 717 aircraft. The FAA said a total of four of the reported problems involved Alaska Airlines aircraft; four, Delta Air Lines; and two, AirTran. Airlines reporting one aircraft problem were American, Continental, TWA, Northwest and Hawaiian Air, the FAA said. The FAA gave airlines until Monday (February 14) to look for metal shavings which might indicate excessive wear on the jackscrew mechanism of the horizontal stabiliser. Airlines were given a further 30 days to perform a more detailed test of mechanical wear. The FAA said:

Airlines received the inspection notice during the day yesterday, meaning some inspections may be completed on Monday.

The FAA said the significance of the problems being reported would not be known until detailed inspections took place. Some of the aircraft with damage in the jackscrew area had already been repaired and put back in service, it said.

14 February 2000 – Airlines grounded 11 more jets under a US Government order to examine tail wings for a problem that may have caused an Alaska Airlines (McDonnell Douglas MD83 N963AS) aircraft to crash two weeks ago. Since Thursday (February’10), at least 21 aircraft have been found to have irregularities with tail wing jackscrews, the 60-centimetre rods that drive the stabilisers that keep aircraft level, according to numbers from the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines. The jackscrew recovered from the submerged wreckage of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 had damaged threads and metal shavings. The National Transportation Safety Bureau has not determined whether jackscrew damage caused the January 31 crash that killed all 88 people on board, but after similar damage was found on other Alaska Airlines jets, the FAA ordered all airlines to inspect their MD-80s, MD-90s, Boeing 717s and DC-9s – about 1,200 aircraft in all. In a statement on Saturday, the FAA said 13 aircraft had been grounded for jackscrew problems, though some were back in service. Others were found to have metal shavings on the jackscrew, or other irregularities. The FAA said:

The significance of the findings will not be known until a detailed inspection of the parts can be made. These are initial reports and the FAA believes it is premature to draw any conclusions from them.

Airlines said even more aircraft have been grounded than the 13 the FAA announced. FAA spokesman, Eliot Brenner, said the agency is looking specifically for slivers of metal along jackscrews while airline mechanics are reporting anything unusual they find. The FAA has ordered that the inspections be completed by today.

15 February 2000 – Safety investigators today said the Alaska Airlines (McDonnell Douglas MD83 N963AS) aircraft that crashed two weeks ago had been considered in 1997 for replacement of a key tail part but maintenance workers changed their mind after further tests. The National Transportation Safety Board said a review of the MD-83's maintenance records showed an initial test of the fit between the screw and nut that controls the horizontal stabiliser was at the "maximum allowable end play limit." A statement by the safety board said the records showed the initial plan was to replace the gimbal nut but the plan was reevaluated and the wear limit was checked six more times and the results came within specified tolerances. The pilots of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 complained of difficulties controlling the horizontal stabiliser before the aircraft plunged into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles on January 31. Examination of the wreckage showed severe damage to the gimbal nut, whose threads were found wrapped around the jackscrew. Those findings and damage seen in other Alaska Airlines aircraft prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to order a nation-wide check of 1,100 aircraft over the last three days, that has revealed 21 reports of problems with the stabiliser mechanism. Flight 261's stabiliser went full nose-down some 12 minutes before the crash. The FAA said, late yesterday, the types of problems seen in the checks ranged from grit to metal filings in the jackscrew lubricant. Boeing has said normal wear should just produce a powdery residue in the grease. The safety board said it was continuing to evaluate this latest information on Flight 261 and further search the maintenance records since the aircraft's manufacture and delivery to Alaska Airlines in 1992. It said:

No determination has been made as to whether this information has any bearing on the accident.

Carriers were given 30 days for the more precise test of wear between the jackscrew and gimbal nut that Flight 261 underwent during a heavy maintenance check in September of 1997 at the airline's facility in Oakland, California. The results of the additional tests that showed the fit was still acceptable were signed off by an Alaska Airlines maintenance inspector, the safety board said. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines insisted yesterday it had found nothing in its fleet so far, despite FAA listing it Saturday (February 12) as having reported one problem. American spokeswoman, Martha Pantin, said:

We have inspected 238 of 284 and we have found no problems and we will be completed by this evening.

Delta Air Lines, which had identified four aircraft for greater scrutiny, said it had completed inspections on 125 of its 136 MD-88 and MD-90 fleet. At other carriers, FAA had listed Air Tran with two aircraft and one each at Continental, TWA and Hawaiian Air.

China's civil aviation regulator said today it had ordered all airlines to check their McDonnell Douglas aircraft after an Alaska Airlines MD-83 (N963AS) crash which killed 88 people. A spokesman for the Civil Aviation General Administration of China said it issued the order to all airlines yesterday. He said:

So far we have not received any information.

The Workers' Daily quoted an official of the administration as saying domestic airlines were checking the tails of their DC-9-80, MD-82 and MD-90 aircraft. The official was quoted as saying Chinese airlines operated 45 McDonnell Douglas aircraft, but no MD-83s.

14 February 2000 – Aviation officials said today that 23 aircraft had so far been reported for tail problems, as airlines completed checks prompted by an Alaska Airlines (McDonnell Douglas MD83 N963AS) crash two weeks ago. The Federal Aviation Administration said cargo carrier Airborne Express had found two DC-9s lacking lubrication to the screw and nut that control the horizontal stabiliser, lifting the total from 21 aircraft reported earlier today. The FAA said today it could shorten the 30-day check period it gave carriers for a more detailed check of the wear between the jackscrew and the nut, once the agency examines parts taken from aircraft during the first stage of the inspection. With the visual inspection of 1,027 US-registered aircraft almost complete, the FAA said today it had 23 reports of problems, ranging from lack of lubrication and metallic grit in the jackscrew grease to slivers coming off the gimbal nut. In addition to Airborne Express, FAA said the tally of problem planes by airline was as follows: Alaska Airlines eight, Delta Air Lines four, AirTran three, Hawaiian Air two, and one each at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, at Continental Airlines, at Northwest Airlines and at TWA. In other developments today, an attorney filed suit in federal court against Alaska Airlines on behalf of the widow of Allen Friedmann, 48, a marketing executive with the California Bankers Association, killed on Flight 261. The lawsuit filed in US District Court in Chicago by attorney Robert Clifford charged the airline with negligence, alleging the pilots bypassed nine viable landing sites in favour of "trouble-shooting" the stabiliser in the air. Other defendants named in the lawsuit were 'plane manufacturers Boeing Co. of Seattle and McDonnell Douglas of St Louis, which is now owned by Boeing.

15 February 2000 – The count of aircraft found with tail problems in a nation-wide inspection sparked by the deadly crash of an Alaska Airlines aircraft (McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N963AS) last month, rose to 27 today, federal regulators said. The Federal Aviation Administration said the number rose from a previously reported 23 with the addition of two more aircraft from Delta Air Lines and another two from Northwest Airlines. Northwest had said on Sunday (February 13) it replaced parts on three aircraft but the FAA had only listed one aircraft in earlier counts. An FAA spokesman said a final tally could come tomorrow. Operators of over 1,000 MD-80 and related aircraft were given 72 hours last week to check the jackscrew and gimbal nut which control the horizontal stabiliser, after the parts were found damaged in the wreck of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. The pilots of Flight 261 complained of difficulties controlling the horizontal stabiliser of their MD-83 before it plunged into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles on January 31, killing all 88 people on board. FAA and National Transportation Safety Board officials are examining parts removed from a number of aircraft, following inspection, to consider if further action is necessary. Problems found range from a lack of jackscrew lubrication to metal slivers from the gimbal nut in the jackscrew grease.

17 February 2000 – The remains of two more victims of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 (McDonnell Douglas MD-83 N963AS) were identified today, as the medical examiner's office worked on providing death certificates to the families of all 88 people killed in the crash off southern California. A total of 49 victims' remains had been identified since the January 31 crash, said Barbara Brodfuehrer, spokeswoman for the Ventura County medical examiner. No remains have been recovered since February 7. California law does not allow death certificates to be issued unless remains are recovered and identified. The certificates are required before next of kin can access banking accounts, collect insurance, transfer property or execute wills.

18 February 2000 – After inspecting more than 1,000 aircraft, US airlines replaced jackscrew devices in the tail sections of 18 aircraft. The government-ordered inspections came after an Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (N963AS) crashed into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88 people. The Federal Aviation Administration reported yesterday that 1,107 aircraft in the MD-80, MD-90, McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Boeing 717 series were subject to the inspections ordered on the horizontal stabiliser, a tail component which helps level the aircraft. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were closely examining the stabiliser jackscrew. The Alaska Airline pilots reported trouble with the device before the aircraft went down on January 31, off the coast of California. Pieces of the aircraft retrieved from the wreckage indicated wear on the nut. Investigators, however, have not determined whether this damage contributed to the crash or was caused when the aircraft hit the water. Earlier, the FAA reported that the inspections had revealed 27 problems. FAA spokesman, Eliot Brenner, said the number was lowered to 22 after federal regulators discovered that some of the problems reported did not reflect defects, but "routine wear and tear". Inspections on 1,098 aircraft have been completed, he said. Nine other aircraft subject to the inspections were out of service and would be inspected before they were flown again.

Investigators today said they had found further signs of damage in the tail mechanism of the Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (N963AS) that crashed last month. The National Transportation Safety Board said it found impact marks on the outside of two nuts that help control the horizontal stabiliser and were trying to see if they were made before the aircraft hit the sea, off California. The jackscrew that turns in those nuts was earlier found wrapped with shreds of metal presumed to be from the gimbal nut that was found stripped. Investigators now say the lower stop nut was also stripped of its thread. The pilots of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 complained of trouble controlling the stabiliser of their aircraft before it plunged into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles on January 31, killing all 88 people on board. If the damage seen in the wreckage existed prior to the impact, it could explain why the pilots lost control. Stabiliser trim problems are usually recoverable but the control surface mounted at the top of the tail may have gone beyond its designed angle. The safety board said in a statement that it now had five jackscrew and nut assemblies in its Washington laboratory, in addition to the one from the accident aircraft.