More Crash Victims Recovered

A concentrated search of the sea floor near Anacapa Island over the past few days has produced many more human remains, boosting the number of bodies recovered from Alaska Airlines Flight 261 and raising hopes that all of the dead may eventually be identified, officials said Sunday.

Aided by a trio of roving robot submarines, Navy investigators spent the past several days sweeping the ocean floor with cameras and sonar devices to study the wreckage 700 feet beneath the waves. The same equipment used in the recovery of the so-called black boxes last week is also being used to retrieve human remains, which are being brought ashore to Port Hueneme Harbor aboard salvage vessels.

The latest discoveries occurred near the 150-yard debris field on the ocean bottom near Anacapa Island, said officials with the National Transportation Safety Board. A portion of the tail section and at least one 10-foot section of fuselage has been identified.

Several hundred human remains have been recovered and 30 to 50 of those have readily identifiable markings, including tattoos, dental work, fingerprints, scars, clothing or jewelry. As of Friday, officials reported that four bodies had been recovered.

“From the mapping, there appears to be more of a chance to recover the victims than had been anticipated,” a source close to the investigation told The Times. “The National Transportation Safety Board is confident of recovering the bodies or portions of the remains for virtually 100% of the families to provide them some sort of burial ceremony.”

It will take a few days at the earliest before some remains are positively identified and released to family members, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Others may require months of DNA analysis.

Sheriff Bob Brooks said Sunday the bodies are more intact than previously thought and that the number of recoveries has significantly increased over the past two days.

In other developments, federal investigators retrieved the flight data recorder from another Alaska Airlines jet that was forced to return to Reno on Saturday evening when the pilot reported problems with the motors on that plane’s horizontal stabilizer. It was the second time in a week that a MD-80 series jet was forced to land due to concerns about the aircraft’s stabilizer, which controls the up and down angle of the plane.

Minutes before the Alaska Airlines crash on Jan. 31, the pilots of Flight 261 reported trouble with the MD-83 aircraft’s stabilizer trim and discussed the problem with mechanics as they struggled to regain control of the plane.

Word that more bodies are being recovered comes as many of the families of crash victims are preparing to return home after memorial services Saturday in Riverside and Malibu, which attracted more than 600 friends and relatives of the victims.

Bruce Lockwood, a mental health officer with the Red Cross, said the discoveries will probably bring a small measure of relief to the families. For many, the ability to pay final respects to the dead is an important step toward healing, Lockwood said.

“That will help bring closure,” said Christopher Thomas, spokesman for the Red Cross. “Almost unanimously, family members would like to have their family members back and provide a memorial service at home. It would be good news. I would think that it would substantially help families reach closure and start the process of coming to grips with this tragedy and moving on along the road to recovery. I’d almost speculate that family members would wish to remain in the area if this is true.”

Terry Williams, spokesman for the NTSB, said the agency’s goal is to recover all the identifiable human remains searchers can locate whether on the surface or under the sea. However, he would not discuss how the search is progressing, the number of bodies recovered or the prospects for retrieving more victims. Navy and Coast Guard vessels continue to scour the patch of ocean where the jetliner plunged into the ocean eight miles from Port Hueneme en route from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco and Seattle.

Last Wednesday, Navy ships began arriving at the crash site, bringing sophisticated sonar equipment and deep-diving submersibles to aid in the underwater investigation. Prior to that, a flotilla of Coast Guard vessels, local fishing boats and lifeguard patrol craft combed the surface, collecting debris and body parts from the crash site.

The water is too deep for Navy divers, said B.R. Brown, spokesman for the San Diego-based Navy amphibious unit involved in the recovery work.

The vessels’ first objective was to recover the so-called black boxes, which contain recordings and instruments that measured the final moments of the ill-fated jetliner. Also, the ships’ sonar is being used to produce a detailed map of the debris field, possibly offering clues about what happened to the plane and pave the way for salvage efforts, Brown said.

But with the quick recovery of the black boxes and most of the mapping assignments accomplished by Saturday, more resources are available to recover the dead, Brown acknowledged.

“Our charter and what we came out here to do has remained constant,” he said. “The NTSB did ask us to bring up clearly identifiable remains incidental to the efforts of mapping and recovery of the black box. It was not part of our initial tasking, but it became that.”

Williams, the NTSB spokesman, said the recovery of victims has always been a priority and the board’s goal is to recover all readily identifiable human remains the submarines can find.

“Human remains are always a concern to us,” Williams said. “These are human beings we are talking about, and we try to treat them with respect and dignity.”

The effort to map the crash site on the ocean bottom is expected to conclude today, and recovery of victims will continue this week. There are no decisions to salvage the aircraft, although Williams said the NTSB is considering raising the tail sections of the plane, where the suspect trim stabilizer is located.

On Sunday, federal investigators retrieved the flight data recorder from the Alaska Airlines jet that was forced to return to Reno when the pilot reported problems with the horizontal stabilizer.

Shortly after taking off from Reno/Tahoe International Airport, the pilots reported that the motors controlling the horizontal stabilizer were operating “intermittently,” airline spokesman Greg Witter said Sunday.

The plane bound for Seattle carrying 140 passengers and five crew members returned safely to Reno.

“This was not an emergency landing,” Witter said. “The airplane turned around out of prudence and due diligence.”

The flight data recorder was sent to Washington for analysis, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said. Federal investigators also plan to interview the aircraft’s crew about the problem.

Witter said the electric motors probably had overheated after the pilots “double- and triple-checked” the stabilizers before they took off. The overheating causes the motors to shut down until they cool. The motors did not burn out, Witter said.

It’s not unusual for the motors to overheat if they are tested for more than 90 seconds while the plane is on the ground, he said. Once the plane is airborne, the motors cool and begin operating again, Witter explained.

“The stabilizer did not jam at all,” he said. “It was operating intermittently, and it cleared itself up within minutes of takeoff. But the flight crew decided to return and get it checked out.”

In another incident last Wednesday, an American Airlines MD-83 en route from Phoenix to Dallas-Fort Worth returned to Phoenix after a switch appeared to be working only intermittently on the co-pilot’s side of the cockpit.

Although there was no problem with the stabilizer itself, American spokeswoman Elizabeth Ninomiya said Sunday that the pilots “elected to turn around and landed safely in Phoenix.”

“I think everyone has an awareness of the issue,” she said.

The problem turned out to be a bad switch on the co-pilot’s control yoke. Mechanics also replaced a motor in the stabilizer, she said. The NTSB sent the American jet’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder to its headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Replacing faulty trim motors was the subject of a federal Airworthiness Directive involving DC-9/MD-80 aircraft. On March 4, 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive that required carriers to inspect and replace incorrectly manufactured primary trim motors that control the horizontal trim system. Investigators first identified the problem motors in 1994.

The motor shafts could fail prematurely, causing the motor to fail, according to the FAA directive. The agency required the motors’ manufacturer, Sundstrand Electric Power Systems, to repair the parts at no cost. The airlines paid for the costs of inspection and replacement, estimated between $240 to $3,600 per plane. Airlines had six months to comply with the directive.

On Sunday, mourners continued to flock to Ventura County beaches to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.

Santa Paula resident Roger Brower and his wife, Sally Knight, carried a redwood cross to the windy shore near the Hueneme Pier to honor First Officer William Tansky.

The 57-year-old co-captain of the Flight 261 was an experienced pilot who had flown for Alaska Airlines for more than a decade, Brower said.

He was also an old friend.

“I felt we needed to do something,” said Knight, who persuaded her husband to make the emotional trip to the pier where a memorial site is set up.

Brower, who retired recently as civilian in charge of military communication repair facilities at Moffett Field in Northern California, said he believes Tansky and other members of the flight crew did everything in their power to try to prevent the crash.

“Their training is excellent, the procedures are always followed,” Brower said. “I think they did everything right.”

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Times staff writers Jeffrey Rabin, Stanley Holmes, Edward J. Boyer and Tracy Wilson contributed to this story along with Times Community News reporter Gail Davis.