Alaska Airlines Flight 261
fatal aviation accident that occurred on January 31, 2000 over the Pacific Ocean
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport near Seattle, Washington, United States, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. On January 31, 2000, the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operating the flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean roughly 2.7 miles (4.3 km; 2.3 nmi) north of Anacapa Island, California, following a catastrophic loss of pitch control, while attempting to divert to Los Angeles International Airport. The accident killed all 88 on board – two pilots, three cabin crew members, and 83 passengers.
The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and eventual failure of a critical flight control system during flight. The probable cause was stated to be "a loss of airplane pitch control resulting from the in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly's Acme nut threads." For their efforts to save the plane, both pilots were posthumously awarded the Air Line Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident was a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, serial number 53077, and registered with the tail number N963AS. The MD-83 was a longer-range version of the original MD-80 (an improved version of the DC-9), with higher weight allowances, increased fuel capacity, and more powerful Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engines. The aircraft had logged 26,584 flight hours and 14,315 cycles since it was delivered in 1992.
Crew
The pilots of Flight 261 were both highly experienced pilots. Captain Ted Thompson, 53, had accrued 17,750 flight hours, and had more than 4,000 hours experience as pilot-in-command in MD-80s. First Officer William "Bill" Tansky, 57, had accumulated 8,060 hours as first officer on the MD-80.
The public source identifies “Alaska Airlines Flight 261” as fatal aviation accident that occurred on January 31, 2000 over the Pacific Ocean. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alaska, Airlines and Flight.
Why this record matters
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q770935. Authority coordinates are 34.058, -119.347. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alaska Airlines Flight 261” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.