Aviation Attorney Paul Hedlund Discusses Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Crash on KCAL 9

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► Baum Hedlund aviation attorney Paul J. Hedlund discusses the tragic crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 with Alan Mendelson of KCAL 9 News Los Angeles on February 1, 2000, detailing some of the key issues that were the focus of the accident investigation.

On January 31, 2000, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 plane operating as Alaska Airlines Flight 261 departed from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and was scheduled to land in San Francisco before reaching its final destination of Seattle.

As the plane was flying over Southern California, the pilots reported problems with the tail-section horizontal stabilizer, which controls the aircraft’s upward and downward movements. The tail-section horizontal stabilizer is operated by a jackscrew, a component that consists of a nut that slides up and down the screw to raise and lower the stabilizer.

Investigators found that the jackscrew failed, so the stabilizer couldn’t keep the plane aloft. The airliner crashed near Anacapa Island, killing all 83 passengers and five crew members.

In the wake of the crash, Paul Hedlund told KCAL 9 that he expected airlines with MD-80 class planes in their fleet to report on the stabilizer issue raised by the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash. Indeed, the jackscrew is now one of the most scrutinized components on a plane for maintenance crews and inspectors.

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