Pilots blame Alaska, FAA for Flight 261 crash

The airline pilots union, usually reluctant to criticize airlines on safety matters, blames Alaska Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration for conditions that led to the January 2000 crash of Flight 261.

In a report to the agency investigating the crash, the Air Line Pilots Association says Alaska, trying to produce higher profits, developed a "high tolerance for risk," and that FAA officials in Renton were too close to Alaska managers.

The bluntly worded, 55-page report was submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is expected to release its findings in December.

Board investigators are preparing a report that, at this point, concludes that a lack of grease in critical areas of the plane's jackscrew assembly caused the crash that killed all 88 passengers and crew, sources close to the NTSB say. The 2-foot-long jackscrew helps to move the horizontal stabilizer, the tail-section mechanism that controls the plane's angle of flight.

Before issuing its findings, the board allows parties to the crash to offer their final views. The pilots union, along with Alaska, Boeing and other parties, submitted reports to the NTSB last month. Copies of key submissions, which the board plans to make public shortly, were obtained by The Seattle Times.

The pilots union, commonly called ALPA, concurs that a lack of grease was the direct cause of the crash. But it contends the FAA allowed Alaska to extend intervals for lubricating and checking wear on the jackscrew assembly with little analysis or scrutiny.

Top FAA officials in the agency's regional office in Renton allowed Alaska to operate for years with "critical deficiencies," ALPA says. FAA inspectors who took tough stances with the carrier were punished, and there was an "inappropriate relationship" between Alaska and the agency, ALPA added.

"The fact these deficiencies have existed for so long explains why the carrier had developed a culture of non-compliance," the union said.

ALPA's report reflects an effort to be as "straightforward and honest as possible" and to ensure that another crash like Flight 261 doesn't occur, said Alaska Capt. Kevin Hampson, a union representative to the NTSB investigation.

When ALPA members first went to the crash site, Hampson said, "We all made a promise to ourselves, no matter who is at fault, no matter what the cause of the accident, we have to go into this investigation with no political stuff."

Alaska declined comment on ALPA's assertions, as well as on its own submission and Boeing's. NTSB rules prohibit parties from publicly discussing the investigation.

Alaska previously said it now operates with a revamped maintenance program, which was changed when the FAA threatened after the crash to shut down the carrier's major-repair facilities.

In its own report to the NTSB on Flight 261, Alaska disputes the board's preliminary conclusion, holding to its longstanding position that a Boeing-approved grease corroded the jackscrew assembly on the MD-83 that crashed. Flight 261 plunged into the Pacific Ocean off Southern California on Jan. 31, 2000, en route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle.

Alaska also faults Boeing over design issues, saying that an endstop on the jackscrew assembly didn't prevent it from sliding out of the nut.

"Alaska was surprised to learn that the failure of the threads on a single nut could cause a catastrophic failure of this nature," the airline said.

Alaska also says its intervals for lubricating and testing wear of the jackscrew assembly were approved by Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, and that the procedure the plane makers recommended for measuring wear was inherently flawed.

Alaska also takes the unusual step in its report of criticizing former NTSB Chairman Jim Hall for publicly stating early in the investigation that no grease was found in critical areas of the jackscrew assembly.

"Unfortunately, this erroneous public pronouncement led some to conclude that Alaska failed to properly lubricate the jackscrew assembly," the carrier said.

In its submission, Boeing, which merged in 1997 with McDonnell Douglas, the maker of the plane, says for the first time publicly that it agrees a lack of grease led to the crash. Boeing has privately supported that theory for months but has avoided direct criticism of Alaska, one of its best customers.

Boeing defends the aircraft's performance, saying the MD-80 series jackscrew assembly is a "safely designed system that meets or exceeds all applicable FAA certification requirements."

With proper maintenance, Boeing said, the mechanism shouldn't fail. But the plane that crashed went "an extended period without adequate lubrication," the company said.

That and the "operator's extended interval" for checking wear led to the crash, Boeing concludes.

Alaska and Boeing, in addition to being parties in the NTSB investigation, are defendants in dozens of wrongful-death suits scheduled for trial in April 2003.

Though they have jointly sought to settle all the suits and avoid blaming each other for the crash, they have succeeded in only about half of the 88 cases.

The pilots association contends that before the crash, Alaska lacked fundamental maintenance programs required by federal air-safety regulations, including adequate quality-control procedures and a formal safety-reporting system. The union cites evidence uncovered by the NTSB and an FAA audit team that inspected Alaska after the crash.

"It is apparent from a review of the factual data... that the motivation for maximum income with minimum operational cost resulted in a high tolerance for risk with regard to safety," the union said.

"Because of the pervasiveness of this culture within the organization, it is apparent that it originated at the highest level of management," it added. "This high tolerance for risk probably developed insidiously as the airline rapidly expanded, profits rose dramatically, and operational expenses were cut significantly."

ALPA contends that the two pilots on Flight 261, Capt. Ted Thompson and 1st Officer Bill Tansky, did everything they could to keep the plane flying but were faced with unprecedented problems that doomed their efforts.

"The factual record indicates that had the accident not occurred on this particular flight, it would have occurred in the very near future," the union said.

The FAA, also prohibited from discussing the NTSB's work, has said its oversight of Alaska has significantly increased. But it has allowed top managers in the Renton office to remain in their posts, while a lead inspector who had held Alaska to strict standards was recently transferred.

The NTSB has spent considerable time examining Alaska's maintenance practices and FAA oversight as contributing factors in the crash. It is expected to address those issues when it holds a public hearing that sources say will occur in mid-December.

The board also is likely to discuss the MD-83 design, which has come under scrutiny because the jackscrew assembly experienced the type of catastrophic failure that is not supposed to occur under federal regulations.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com.

Kevin Hampson is the name of an Alaska Airlines pilot quoted below. His name was misspelled.