Flight 261 Tapes Show Fleeting Moments of Hope

“We are, uh, in a dive here,” the cockpit crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 radioed air traffic controllers in January as their jetliner began to plunge from 26,000 feet. “We’ve lost vertical control of our airplane.”

Five minutes later, as the jet leveled off over the Pacific at 22,500 feet, there was hope.

“We have a jammed stabilizer and we’re maintaining altitude with difficulty,” one of the pilots radioed, “uh, but, uh, we can maintain altitude, we think, and our intention is to land at Los Angeles.”

The optimism of the flight crew--captured in air traffic control radio recordings made public Wednesday by federal officials--was shattered four minutes later as the big jetliner nosed over a second time.

“That plane has just started to do a big, huge plunge,” the pilot of a corporate plane reported as Flight 261 went into a final dive.

“He is, uh, definitely in a nose-down position,” a Sky West pilot concurred.

“And he’s just hit the water,” the corporate pilot said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are focusing on the possibility that a malfunctioning horizontal stabilizer--the wing-like portion of the tail that largely controls the up-and-down pitch of the nose--precipitated the crash off Ventura County that killed all 88 aboard the plane Jan. 31.

The dramatic final minutes of the Alaska jetliner were captured on more than 2 1/2 hours of overlapping recordings of conversations between the air traffic controllers at the Los Angeles Air Route Control Center in Palmdale, controllers at the Southern California Approach Control Center in San Diego and the pilots of Flight 261 and several other planes.

Transcripts of these recordings confirm earlier reports that the pilots lost control of the sleek twin-engine jet after experiencing problems with the stabilizer on the planned flight from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco.

The NTSB says no lubricating grease was found on the jackscrew that moves the stabilizer, raising questions about the airline’s maintenance procedures, which already were under investigation by a criminal grand jury in the Bay Area because of problems with other planes.

A data recorder recovered from wreckage on the ocean floor indicated that the pilots had been grappling with control problems for at least 30 minutes before the plane plunged into the ocean.

The transcripts released Wednesday show that roughly 10 minutes before the crash--about 4:10 p.m.--the cockpit crew told controllers that the plane was “in a dive.”

“Say again?” a controller asked.

“Yeah, we’re out of 26,000 feet,” one of the pilots answered. “We’re in a vertical dive--not a dive yet--but, uh, we’ve lost vertical control of our airplane.”

The pilots’ next comments, a few seconds later, reflected the desperate situation in the cockpit.

“We’ve got it back under control there,” one of them said. “No, we don’t.”

A minute later, the controller asked the pilots how they were doing.

“We’re . . . gonna, uh, do a little trouble-shooting,” one of them answered.

Reporting in about four minutes later, the cockpit crew members described the problem with the stabilizer and announced their intention of making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. They said they were going to “reconfigure the jet”--presumably trimming the plane into its landing configuration and preparing to drop to 10,000 feet for an approach to the airport.

Some aviation experts said this reconfiguration--deploying slat and flap panels that increase the lift of the wings--may have exacerbated the instability caused by the jammed stabilizer.

Assigned an altitude of 17,000 feet, the pilots explained that they needed “a block altitude”--a span of several thousand feet. The request indicated that they were having trouble controlling the plane well enough to hold it at a specific altitude.

The pilots asked the altimeter setting at LAX, and it was read to them.

“Thank you,” one of them replied.

It was the last radio transmission from Flight 261.

Two minutes later, a controller asked the pilot of a corporate plane whether he could see the Alaska jet, and the corporate pilots said he could.

“Just kinda keep your eye on him,” the controller said. “He’s having some pretty bad problems up there right now.”

About a minute later, about 4:21 p.m., the corporate pilot and the pilot of Sky West Flight 5154 radioed that they had seen the Alaska jet roll over on its back and plunge nose-first into the sea.

Times staff writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington and Johnathon E. Briggs in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Audio clips of communications between air traffic controllers and the pilot of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 can be heard on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/alaska

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Final Moments of Flight 261

The following are excerpts from transcripts of radio conversations on Jan. 31 between air traffic controllers and the pilots of Alaska Flight 261 and another plane. All times are Pacific Standard Time.

4:09:55 p.m. Alaska 261: We are, uh, in a dive here.

4:10:01 p.m. Air Traffic Control: Uh, say again?

4:10:06 p.m. Alaska 261: Yeah, we’re out of 26,000 feet. We’re in a vertical dive--not a dive yet--but, uh, we’ve lost vertical control of our airplane.

4:10:17 p.m. Air Traffic Control: Alaska 261, roger.

4:10:28 p.m. Alaska 261: We’re at 23,700 request, uh. . . . Yeah, we’ve got it back under control there. No, we don’t.

4:11:03 p.m. Air Traffic Control: Alaska 261, say your condition.

4:11:06 p.m. Alaska 261: We’re at 24,000 feet kinda stabilized. We’re . . . gonna, uh, do a little trouble-shooting.

4:15:19 p.m. Alaska 261: We’re at 22,500. We have a jammed stabilizer and we’re maintaining altitude with difficulty, uh, but, uh, we can maintain altitude, we think. And our intention is to land at Los Angeles.

4:16:56 p.m. Alaska 261: Say the altimeter setting.

4:16:59 p.m. Air Traffic Control: The L.A. altimeter is 3-0-1-8.

4:17:01 p.m. Alaska 261: Thank you (the last transmission from Flight 261).

4:18:02 p.m. Air Traffic Control: Zero Delta X-Ray (a corporate turboprop’s designation). . . . Up there, kinda high, is one of Alaska’s. . . . Just kinda keep your eye on him. He’s having some pretty bad problems up there right now.

4:19:39 p.m. Zero Delta X-Ray: That plane has just started to do a big, huge plunge.

4:20:20 p.m. Zero Delta X-Ray: Plane’s inverted, sir.

4:20:59 p.m. Zero Delta X-Ray: And he’s just hit the water.

Source: Federal Aviation Administration