Long article. Here is the relevant snip:

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=61789

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times reported Wednesday that the airliner might have been experiencing trouble with its tail stabilizer on the way down to Mexico. The Times cited sources that said the crew that flew the aircraft to Puerto Vallarta, not the same pilots who died in the crash, telephoned Alaska Airlines maintenance headquarters in Seattle to discuss the problems. National Transportation Safety Board officials said Wednesday they planned to interview the earlier crew. The nature of the mechanical problems is not known at this time.

-- Steve Baxter (chicoqh@home.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

Just speculation. They reported a stabilizer problem, requested clearance to land at LAX, and were cleared to 17,000' due to military restrictions near Point Mugu Naval Warfare test area.

Things didn't look to bad at 17,000 until they were hit by friendly fire.

http://www.sightings.com/politics6/alaska261.htm

I've watched at least 3 different pilots interviewed on TV who refer to the stabilizer problem as one which is normally managable and does not account for the sudden decent from 17,000'.

y2k, EC Effect, whatever. Are we getting the full story? Probably not. Has the Pt. Mugu civilian publicity officer lied about operations in the area at the time of the crash? Probably. They've lied before (re: twa 800).

-- warren blim (mr_little@yahoo.com), February 03, 2000.

That's possible Warren. I just went to see what I could find out about the weaponry at Mugu and I can't get through. Just coincidence, or are they trying to hide something?

mugu naval station

Click on the link to the Warfare Center - Weapons Division and see if you have better luck than I did.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), February 03, 2000.

I posted this earlier:

http://happy.mugu.navy.mil/tt/mission.html

I really like the machine name 'happy'. Like I said, I think we always end up a little shy on the truth. So assuming the worst about our .gov never seems too far off base, though it may take many years to come to that conclusion.

Oh well, planes just do fall out of the sky. Sometimes it's friendly fire, sometimes its systems problems, sometimes it's human error. I'm thinking maybe we should fly a little less until all this gets ironed out whatever it is.

-- warren blim (mr_little@yahoo.com), February 03, 2000.

Yea maybe that site is down. It's not ping'able from my location.

Non-authoritative answer: Name: nawcwd.navy.mil Address: 206.37.206.69

My 'happy' site must be the fluffy public consumptive info.

-- warren blim (mr_little@yahoo.com), February 03, 2000.