Piece of Jet May Have Broken Off

Radar data show that a piece may have broken off Alaska Airlines Flight 261 seconds before the jetliner began its fatal plunge into the sea near Anacapa Island, sources close to the investigation said Monday.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, said the data appear to show a separate, smaller image paralleling the main image of the MD-83 as the plane fell from the sky on Jan. 31, killing all 88 on board.

Two loud bangs were heard aboard the jetliner in the minutes before it crashed, including one just before the fatal plunge.

Investigators have refused to speculate on what might have caused the bangs, but several aviation safety experts have suggested structural failure of the horizontal stabilizer that controls the plane’s nose-up and nose-down pitch.

“It sounds like something broke,” said one of the experts, retired Trans World Airlines pilot Barry Schiff.

In radio conversations with air traffic controllers and airline maintenance personnel before the plunge, Flight 261’s pilots said they were having problems with the stabilizer that were making the jetliner difficult to control.

However, the investigative sources said it was still too early to say whether the smaller radar image might have shown part of the stabilizer.

The sources said the pieces of wreckage spotted on the ocean floor by remote-controlled television cameras are extremely fragmented, and it is hard to say whether any part of the stabilizer may have landed elsewhere.

Details about the data gleaned from Federal Aviation Administration and military radar were not made public Monday, but the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, has scheduled a briefing this morning in Washington to discuss the crash.

The safety board is expected to reveal more about the radar data and about the information picked up by the plane’s flight data recorder, which was recovered from the ocean floor Thursday.

Meanwhile, on Monday evening sparks were seen flying from the rear of an Alaska Airlines jetliner approaching San Francisco International Airport from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, according to an airport duty manager. It was the same route Flight 261 had been taking.

At the request of the pilot, fire trucks met the airplane when it landed about 7:45 p.m., said duty manager Chris Ludwell. The aircraft landed safely and no injuries were reported.

The sparks, which were seen by a pilot, did not cause any apparent problems in the aircraft’s cabin, Ludwell said.

The plane, like the Flight 261 aircraft, was one of the MD-80 series.

In Ventura County, officials said that as of Monday, hundreds of fragments of human remains had been recovered, making possible the identification of as many as 50 victims without costly DNA tests.

The eight-person county coroner’s office, stretched thin by round-the-clock demands of identifying the crash victims, was assigned four county workers this week to handle all non-forensic duties, officials said.

The move leaves Coroner and Medical Examiner Ronald O’Halloran with the tasks of examining the growing number of remains and issuing death certificates.

“This is a very, very heavy hit to have this kind of a burden on a relatively small office,” said interim county Chief Administrator Harry Hufford on Monday. “The fact is that he needed more logistical support.”

Medical examiners from several other counties and a 17-person team of pathologists from the U.S. Department of Health Services are helping with the identification process.

The pathologists are using photos, X-rays, fingerprints and dental records to identify the remains.

Investigators said they are trying to spare relatives the ordeal of inspecting remains for identification purposes. Instead, they are relying on a 14-page questionnaire relatives were asked to fill out last week. In the questionnaire, relatives provided detailed information on clothing, shoes, jewelry, tattoos and scars.

“Just anything that would be a clue to who the person is,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Eric Nishimoto. “There are no family viewings so far. We want to avoid that at all possible cost.”

A source close to the investigation said the coroner’s office expects to be able to provide “virtually 100%” of the families with remains.

Most of the victims’ relatives had returned home by Monday, with the remaining families expected to leave today, said Alaska Airlines spokesman Lou Cancelmi.

At the Wyndham Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, Alaska Airlines set up tables in the lobby to help relatives and friends make flight arrangements. Mourners were able to both book reservations and check in at the makeshift ticket counter.

The airline’s Compassion and Action Response Effort team will keep the families updated on the investigation, Cancelmi said.

In Seattle, victims were remembered Monday evening with a candlelight vigil and by the lighting of the Space Needle at 4:36 p.m., marking the exact moment the plane crashed on Jan. 31.

Times staff writers Tina Dirmann, Bobby Cuza and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson contributed to this story.