Seattle-bound Alaska jet returns to Reno with stabilizer problem

The Seattle-bound jet's problems Saturday night were similar to those discussed by pilots in the tense minutes before Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed into the Pacific near Los Angeles on Monday. The cause of that accident, in which 88 people died, has not been determined.

On Tuesday, an American Airlines MD-83 had trouble with its horizontal stabilizer after takeoff from Phoenix. It returned safely to the airport.

Alaska Airlines does not plan to ground its 35 MD-83 jetliners or to make any unscheduled maintenance checks, said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Seattle-based airline.

"We obviously understand there's some stress out there," he said in a telephone interview Sunday. "Despite the accident, we're launching about 400 flights a day and trying to conduct the normal side of our business."

He said the Reno incident was reported to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the California crash. That probe moves this week from California to Washington, D.C., where investigators are "reading out" the flight-data recorder that tracks aircraft systems and performance. A cockpit-voice recorder from Flight 261 is also being analyzed.

The horizontal stabilizer is a wing-like part on the tail manipulated by the pilot to provide balance along the entire fuselage, said Boeing spokesman John Thom in Long Beach, Calif. An MD-83 stabilizer is about 40 feet wide, he said.

Alaska Airlines believes the Reno problem occurred because pilots are being overly cautious and running the stabilizer through several complete up-and-down cycles before takeoff, "overheating the motors," Evans said Saturday.

When a plane is airborne, the stabilizer is not moved all the way up or down because it would pitch the plane drastically. Cool air aloft keeps the motors from getting too hot.

"We are talking to pilots about the aircraft," Evans said Sunday.

The MD-80 series planes are safe, he said, but passengers worried about a particular type of aircraft are customarily moved to another when possible.

The Seattle-bound jet, Flight 631, left Reno-Tahoe International Airport at about 7 p.m. Saturday. It headed back after seven or eight minutes when the pilot reported that the motors that control the stabilizer were operating improperly, Evans said.

The pilot told passengers he had a major mechanical problem, said passenger Dennis Smythe of Anchorage, Alaska.

Smythe, who has a commercial pilots' license, said the plane was moving up and down.

"The pilot seemed like he was trying to get in control of our porpoising," he said.

As the plane crossed Interstate 80 on its descent, Smythe said he felt the right wing pitch and wondered if the pilot was in control of the plane.

"There was a lot of crying and a lot of praying because a lot of people were probably thinking about that (earlier) crash," he said.

Passengers cheered as the pilot made a rough landing.

"It was scary," passenger Pearson Clair of Seattle told KOLO-TV in Reno. "You never think it's going to happen to you. I hugged my kids after we got back down safely."

"I really think the FAA should step in and do something. They either need to have better supervised maintenance or take these planes out of commission until the problem is fixed. A life is worth more than a few bucks," passenger Virgil Brezak told KOLO.

Officials of the Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the matter.

Passengers were offered seats on a replacement plane Saturday, as well as lodging, a rental car or a later flight.

Only 93 of the 140 aboard the original flight accepted sets on the replacement plane. It was not immediately clear why all of the passengers did not board the second flight.

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