THIS CHRONOLOGY tracks Alaska Airlines Flight 261 on its final trip. The information is from a first analysis of taped radio conversations between the plane and air-traffic control at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), from other radio talk with ground crews, and from the plane's co*ckpit-voice recorder recovered from the wreckage.
The quotes included are from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials who have summarized their review of the tapes.
The taped radio conversations with air-traffic control include precise time recordings. The voice-recorder information is not time-stamped; investigators try to estimate the events' times of events by clocking backward from the end of the recording, which is presumed to be the time the plane hit the water.
Monday, Jan. 31, 2000
3:30 p.m. CST (1:30 p.m. PST) - Flight 261 leaves Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for San Francisco and Seattle.
3:55 p.m. PST - The crew of Flight 261 is instructed by air-traffic control at LAX to maintain an altitude of 31,000 feet and given approval to follow the routine route above the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. The crew acknowledges the instructions.
About this time, or shortly before, the flight crew talks to a mechanic on the ground in Seattle about a problem with the plane's horizontal stabilizer. This is the first conversation recorded on the co*ckpit-voice recorder.
4:10 p.m. - The crew of Flight 261 tells air-traffic control it is having trouble controlling the plane; the plane has descended more than 5,000 feet to an altitude below 26,000 feet.
The co*ckpit-voice recorder shows that, about the same time, there was an apparent loss of vertical control and the plane had dropped for 90 seconds.
"After recovery from this loss of vertical control, a flight attendant advised the crew that she had heard a loud noise in the rear of the aircraft. The crew acknowledged they had heard it, too."
The plane descended to 23,700 feet; there is further discussion about the pilots' "ability to control the aircraft."
Air-traffic control asks Flight 261 what altitude it wants, and other aircraft are kept from the route.
4:11 p.m. - The flight crew radios that the situation is "kind of stabilized" and that it "would do some troubleshooting." The pilots request permission for block-altitude clearance, which would give the plane a tall chunk of sky to occupy instead of having to maintain a steady altitude.
4:14 p.m. - Air-traffic control approves the block-altitude request and asks the flight crew if it needs anything else. Pilots respond: "We're still working it."
4:15 p.m. - Flight 261 reports a jammed stabilizer to air-traffic control. The pilots say they are having trouble maintaining a steady altitude but think they can make it to LAX.
At some point - the precise time isn't known - an Alaska Airlines ground mechanic radios to ask the pilots if they have tried various ways to control the stabilizer. The crew says it has, and asks if there are any "hidden" circuit breakers. "The mechanic said he was not aware of any and said, "We'll see you on the ground."
4:16 p.m. - Flight 261 is cleared to fly to Los Angeles. The crew says it needs to extend the flaps for slower flight and preparation for landing. They want to do so over Santa Monica Bay. The controller approves a descent to 17,000 feet.
"The airplane's out-of-trim condition became worse as the crew attempted to diagnose or correct the problem," said Jim Hall, chairman of the NTSB.
4:17 p.m. - Flight 261 acknowledges the 17,000-foot clearance and says it will need another block-altitude clearance. Air-traffic control instructs the crew to change radio frequencies.
The instruction is not acknowledged.
"Slightly more than one minute before the end of the (co*ckpit) recording, a loud noise can be heard on the recording, and the airplane appears to go out of control."
Before the voice co*ckpit tape ends, the crew "made references to being inverted."
4:21 p.m. - The plane disappears from the radar screen.
Three pilots who were flying in the area tell investigators they saw Flight 261 plummet to the sea, describing the aircraft, as tumbling, spinning, nose-down, cork-screwing and inverted.
4:26 p.m. - The Coast Guard receives a call from Drew Gottshall, a National Park Service worker on Anacapa Island, who says he saw a plane go down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast near Port Hueneme.
