Investigators search for crash clues

OXNARD, Calif. -- Investigators trying to learn why an Alaska Airlines jet with 88 people plunged into the Pacific said today they have recovered four bodies and heard "pinging" from the ocean, apparently from the aircraft's flight recorders.

Officials hope data from the so-called "black boxes" could provide key clues to Monday's crash of the MD-83 jetliner, including whether the airliner was brought down because of problems with a device that's supposed to stabilize the plane.

"That is obviously a prime lead and a prime finding that will be followed," said Coast Guard Vice Adm. Tom Collins.

No survivors have been found.

Collins said the bodies recovered were those of an infant, two women and a man. He said the rescue mission would continue "until I determine there are no survivors."

"This is still a search for human life. The decision to stop searching is mine, mine to make, and it's a difficult one," Collins said during a news conference. "The challenge is time, as time ticks off, risks go up."

Meanwhile, Coast Guard ships, Navy vessels and a private boat combed the choppy sea about 10 miles off the Southern California coast for debris that could help explain what caused the jetliner to crash.

Before daylight, a 10-member team from the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington arrived at the scene to take over the investigation.

Monday night, commercial squid boats used nets to haul in grim reminders of lives lost: a tennis shoe, a stuffed animal and a number of small souvenirs from Mexico. A stench of jet fuel hung in the air as the nets were pulled to the surface.

Flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle hit the water 4:36 p.m. Monday in what a witness described as a nose dive. The weather was clear at the time.

Moments before the crash, one of the two pilots radioed that he was having trouble with "stabilizer trim" and asked to be diverted to Los Angeles for an emergency landing, airline spokesman Jack Evans said.

The plane fell 17,000 feet before being lost from radar screens, officials said. It crashed into an area 10 miles offshore in water 300 feet to 750 feet deep.

The flight was normal until the crew reported control problems, said a source with close knowledge of the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity. Radar showed the plane, an MD-83, plummeting toward the sea shortly afterward.

On MD-80 series airplanes, the horizontal stabilizer looks like a small wing mounted on top of the tail. The stabilizer, which includes panels that pitch the nose up and down, is brought into balance, or "trimmed," from the cockpit.

If a plane loses its horizontal stabilizer, there is no way to keep the nose pointed to the proper angle, and the aircraft will begin an uncontrollable dive.

Evans said the plane had no previous stabilizer problems, and Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes said it had never been in an accident.

A National Park Service ranger on Anacapa Island, off the coast of Oxnard, saw the airliner go down and was first to report it, said spokeswoman Susan Smith at the Channel Islands National Park headquarters in Ventura Harbor.

"He observed a jet going down in the Santa Barbara Channel. From his observation it was nose first," Smith said.

Tony Alfieri, owner of a squid fishing boat, told the Los Angeles Times that he and his crew "heard a big boom and we saw a big splash, I mean like 200 feet in the air. . .We thought, 'Oh my God, this is not a good deal.' "

There were 83 passengers and five crew members aboard, Evans said. Thirty two were bound for San Francisco, 47 for Seattle, three were continuing on to Eugene, Ore., and one to Fairbanks, Alaska. The two pilots were based in Los Angeles and the three flight attendants were based in Seattle.

The passengers included three airline employees, four employees of sister airline Horizon and 23 relatives or friends of the employees.

Both pilots were Alaska Airlines veterans. Capt. Ted Thompson, 53, was hired Aug. 16, 1982, and had 10,400 flying hours with the company. First Officer William Tansky, 57, was hired July 17, 1985, and had 8,047 flying hours with the Seattle-based airline.

The plane itself was built by McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, and delivered to Alaska Airlines in 1992, said John Thom, a spokesman for Boeing's Douglas aircraft unit.

Evans said the plane was serviced on Sunday, went through a low-level maintenance check on Jan. 11 and had a more thorough routine check last January.

Alaska Airlines, which has the image of an Eskimo painted on the tails of its planes, has an excellent safety record. It serves more than 40 cities in Alaska, Canada, Mexico and five Western states.

It had two fatal accidents in the 1970s, both in Alaska.

The MD-80 series is a twin-jet version of the more widely known DC-9, with a single aisle and an engine on each side of the tail. It went into service in 1980 and of the 1,167 series planes delivered, Boeing reported last year, only nine had been lost in accidents.