story at drudge report...sure is funny how there were no problems like this until after the rollover...

-- Planes (falling@from.sky), April 04, 2000

Answers

Flew an MD80 last week, prayed the whole way. I prayed not for life, I prayed that my end (if it be such, at that time) would be no more than I could physically bear, in Human Skin. God, doncha know, brought me right back to my earthly job and responsibilities. Work stacked up on my desk. All goes to show us, we don't get to exit, while there is still work to be done. Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz (wink ;-)).

-- Planes (whereat@link.com), April 04, 2000.

As usual, the only thing Drudge did is rip off the story from Reuters. The story says the problem was bad switch in the cockpit, not in the horizontal stabilizer. I'm pretty sure switches went bad even before the rollover. --------------------------------------- http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000404/bbk.html

Tuesday April 4, 7:26 pm Eastern Time

Bad switch forces Alaska Air MD-80 landing SEATTLE, April 4 (Reuters) - An Alaska Airlines MD-80 made an unscheduled landing in Seattle on Tuesday after the pilots reported a problem with the backup motor controlling the tail-mounted horizontal stabilizer, the carrier said.

Flight 97 left Seattle for Anchorage, Alaska, at about 10 a.m. local time and returned to Seattle an hour later with no injuries to the 140 passengers on board the fully ticketed twin engine narrowbody jet, spokesman Lou Cancelmi said.

``En route the crew found a problem with the alternate stabilizer trim motor. The crew did not declare an emergency but the tower called out some equipment as a precaution,'' Cancelmi said. ``In checking, they discovered that a switch in the cockpit needs to be replaced.''

Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE:ALK - news) suffered its worst air disaster ever when an MD-80 crashed off the California coast on Jan. 31, killing all 88 people on board.

The pilots of that doomed jet reported problems controlling the horizontal stabilizer, prompting crash investigators to scrutinize the apparatus, which controls the angle of ascent or descent, as a possible cause of the accident.

The MD-80, inherited by Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) when it bought McDonnell Douglas in 1997, is one of the most popular commercial jets in service.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), April 05, 2000.