In honor and memory of lost loved ones:

Alaska Airlines Flight 261

January 31 , 2000

Puerto Vallarta, CA - San Francisco, CA

Crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Near Point Mugu, CA

McDonnell Douglas MD-83

The following is a list of known passengers aboard this flight. Crewmembers are separated by position, then alphabetically. Passengers are listed alphabetically by last name. This list has been compiled using all available news sources, including news reports, FAA and NTSB reports, and airline press releases.

This list may or may not be complete and is subject to errors

and should not be taken as an official source of information.

If you wish to have a name added or removed from this list, or if information listed is incorrect please contact the webmaster, with "Add/Remove/Correct Memorial List" in the subject line, along with the passenger name, flight, and request or change.

Click here to return to the index of accidents

Proabable Cause: Mechanical Failure

Abstract: 

On January 31, 2000, about 1621 Pacific standard time, Alaska Airlines, Inc., flight 261, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, N963AS, crashed into the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California. The 2 pilots, 3 cabin crewmembers, and 83 passengers on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces. Flight 261 was operating as a scheduled international passenger flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 from Lic Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, Washington, with an intermediate stop planned at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly's acme nut threads. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines' insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly.

Contributing to the accident was (1) Alaska Airlines' extended lubrication interval, and the FAA's approval of that extension, which increased the likelihood that an unperformed or inadequate lubrication would result in excessive wear of the acme nut threads; and (2) Alaska Airlines' extended end play check interval, and the FAA's approval of that extension, which allowed the excessive wear of the acme nut threads to progress to failure without the opportunity for detection. Contributing also to the accident was the absence on the MD-80 of a fail-safe mechanism to prevent the catastrophic effects of total acme nut thread loss

Fatalities: 88    Surviors: 0

Crewmembers: 

Passengers: