Alaska crash probe reopened

Responding to findings by the National Transportation Safety Board, federal prosecutors in San Francisco have reopened the criminal investigation into the January 2000 crash of Alaska Flight 261, according to informed sources.

Alaska will reveal this development as early as today in an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which requires publicly held companies to disclose significant legal events that could affect shareholders, sources said.

Alaska's Flight 261 plunged into the Pacific Ocean off Southern California on Jan. 31, 2000, killing all 88 passengers and crew aboard the MD-83 jetliner.

Prosecutors did not find evidence of criminal wrongdoing in the crash and in December 2001 put their investigation on hold until the safety board issued its findings on the crash.

Three months ago, the safety board blamed Alaska for the crash, saying its workers did not sufficiently lubricate a key component of the horizontal stabilizer on the jet's tail.

Based on that finding, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco notified Alaska in January that it was reopening its criminal investigation, sources said. Prosecutors have asked Alaska for information on the lubrication of the plane.

Alaska, which is not allowed to discuss SEC filings until they are made public, declined to comment. U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan in San Francisco, reached last night, declined to comment.

The Justice Department's decision to reopen the case is a setback for Alaska because it creates the possibility that criminal charges could be filed.

But law-enforcement officials cautioned that the decision was not based on any clear evidence of criminal conduct.

The officials said FBI agents will try to determine if the lack of lubrication resulted from deliberate failure to perform required maintenance, which could lead to criminal charges, or from simple negligence, which is not a crime.

The criminal investigation of Flight 261 began shortly after the crash. At first, the FBI and other investigators focused on a 1997 decision by Alaska mechanics not to replace the jackscrew assembly — a 2-foot-long, 1-1/2 inch-diameter threaded shaft that moves up and down, raising and lowering the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, part of the tail that controls the plane's angle of flight.

In the case of Flight 261, threads on the jackscrew's nut sheared off, causing the two pilots to lose control of the plane.

NTSB investigators did not find grease inside the nut or on the working threaded part of the screw itself. They concluded that a lack of grease led to premature wear of the jackscrew.

In its report, the NTSB said the passageway into the nut contained a "dried, clay-like substance consistent with degraded grease," rather than fresh grease.

The clay-like material in the nut's passageway suggested that the jackscrew wasn't lubricated during an earlier, required maintenance check, the report said.

The NTSB report said the amount of wear on the jackscrew indicated that "more than just the last scheduled lubrication was missed or inadequately performed."

Law-enforcement officials said they will have a hard time reconstructing exactly what happened because some Alaska mechanics have said they can't remember what work they performed in the months or years before the jet crashed.

The FBI believes there are Alaska employees who know more about the maintenance history of the crashed plane and have been reluctant to come forward, a federal law-enforcement official said.

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