Alaska Airline flight 261

If you are interested in flight accident, there is a fantastic documentary about that. It is called « Mayday » in the US, but you can also find it under the name « Air Crash Investigation« . They are already 16 seasons and 140 episodes! I haven’t watched them all but you can find plenty of them on Youtube.

Today I am gonna give you a summary of flight Alaska Airline 261. I did not hear of these airline before watching the episode. After the crash the company probably went bankrupt. in the 90s the airline was experiencing a high competition and, in order to reduce cost, they were being sloppy with maintenance. At the time the airline fleet was made of MD-80. This aircraft did have a Jackscrew in the tail of the plane in order to control the horizontal stabiliser. Unfortunately because of an improper maintenance, the screw has never been grease before the accident, and the jackscrew just stripped out of the screw. Without a proper stabiliser the plane nose dived in the ocean, killing everyone on board.

One of the mechanic even contacted the authority, and an investigation started a while back before the accident but the fine wasn’t enough for the Airline to stop cutting corner. The mechanic has been fired by telling the truth, and he did not manage to find a job in any other Airline. Not such a good thing to be a whistleblower, not even in these industry.

Enjoy the show french version):