Station Home Page & More Local Information The NTSB released photographs of a damaged piece of the Alaska Airlines plane that crashed into the ocean last week.

Emergency meeting on MD-80 safety SEATTLE, February 9  KING 5 News has learned that officials with Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board were meeting to decide whether emergency inspections should be ordered on all MD-80 jets.

Northwest Aviation Connection SPECIAL COVERAGE: Crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261

Parts dealer John McEvoy shows how the jack screw works. THE OFFICIALS are expected to recommend inspections, perhaps immediately, of all MD-80 and DC-9 series jets. Alaska Airlines was inspecting all of its MD-80 planes Wednesday for possible problems with the jack screw that controls the horizontal stabilizer. Earlier Wednesday, the NTSB released photographs of a damaged piece of the Alaska Airlines plane that crashed into the ocean last week. Divers recovered the horizontal stabilizer jack screw Monday night. The pictures show the jack screw is missing critical parts and what could be cables or threads from the nut or gimble mechanism wrapped around it. Wednesday morning, using a similar jack screw from a Boeing 737, parts dealer John McEvoy showed KING 5s Glenn Farley how the gimble mechanism that attaches to the horizontal stabilizer goes up and down the jack screw. It is very robust. Its also got a steel safety rod in the middle of it that is the status safety rod to prevent it from separating. McEvoy was surprised by the damage shown on the NTSB photographs. It would have taken enormous force, I believe, to break this unit. The NTSB says it is still not clear whether the damage to the jack screw, that also shows a missing safety stop, is the result of the force of the plane hitting the water, or whether thats what happened in the air as pilots could no longer control the jet.

http://www.msnbc.com/local/king/524945.asp

-- RAT (eyesopen@watcher.com), February 09, 2000

Answers

Excellent informative post. Thanks. Emergency meeting ... high time. However the story itself is-- if you ask me -- MARRED by this HOGWASH speculation of "parts dealer" Jim McEvoy and Mr. Farley of KING-5 on the gimble and the jackscrew -- this being reported as if it were NEWS, and done so in furtherance of the party-line which is (as everyone admits) totally unsubstantiated hypothecation and guesswork. To which I have to say only .... go for it HAWK!!!!

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), February 09, 2000.

By the way, my guess is, tht if there are 2-3 more incidents over the next two weeks, they will ground the MD-80, because of the "jackscrew" -- and AHHHH! how aptly poetically named that cover story is already "THE JACKSCREW".

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), February 09, 2000.

Of course the thing got torn apart when it hit the water. I'm glad they are taking a closer look, but of course they're looking for the simplest and most obvious answer, and that isn't going to solve the problem. This inspection is just a charade to pretend to the public that they found the problem and everything has been taken care of. Typical.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), February 10, 2000.