The Coast Guard has moved to a search and recovery operation

February 2, 2000
Web posted at: 9:35 p.m. EST (0235 GMT)

In this story: Navy using robots in search Pilots struggled to control jet Audio tape may hold clues Witness 'felt hopeless' watching descent Relatives gathering near crash site RELATED STORIES, SITES

PORT HUENEME, California (CNN) -- Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder Wednesday night from the waters off the coast of California where Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The recorder should contain the voices of the cockpit crew as they struggled to control the plane during the final seconds before it nose-dived into the Pacific Ocean. The recorder will be quickly taken to the Washington laboratories of the NTSB, where investigators will listen to and transcribe the recording.

PASSENGER AND CREW LIST Names of those aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 261     FAMILIES INFORMATION NUMBERS 1-800-553-5117 1-877-460-8006 From Mexico: 1-800-252-7522     INTERACTIVE RESOURCES Timeline of recent crashes Image gallery: The crash of Flight 261 Flight 261 background Facts about Alaska Airlines     WEATHER CONDITIONS Point Mugu, CA Oxnard, CA    VIDEO CNN's Kalin Thomas-Samuel reports on how airlines communicate crash information to the families of victims and the media (February 2) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Anne McDermott shows the search and rescue efforts. (February 1) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN'a Anne McDermott reports that relatives and friends of the passengers are trying to cope with their loss. (February 1) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     AUDIO Statements and details on the crash     MESSAGE BOARD Alaska Airlines crash     CHAT TRANSCRIPTS CNN Correspondent Charles Feldman Brendan Murphy, former US Navy Diver CNN Correspondent Carl Rochelle

Another device, the flight data recorder, is still missing. The data recorder captures readings from various machines and devices on the plane.

Finding the two so-called black boxes became a priority for the NTSB after the Coast Guard called off the search for survivors at midday Wednesday.

"We have attempted, in making this decision, to err on the side of safety and the best outcome. We have tried to err to give every chance for success in finding survivors," said Vice Adm. Tom Collins of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Some of the victims' families wanted the search to continue, said Collins, when he said he gave the families the reasons for his decision to end the rescue effort after 41 hours.

All 88 people who were aboard the jet are now presumed dead.

So far, searchers have found the bodies of a man, two women and an infant amid the pieces of wreckage and personal items scattered across the fuel-soaked water.

Collins noted that while the searchers, boats and planes were quickly at the crash scene and worked under favorable conditions, the length of time that anyone could have survived in the chilly 57-degree Fahrenheit ocean temperatures had been passed some time ago.

Navy using robots in search

Officials also detailed how efforts would change as their mission switched from search and rescue to search and recovery. The Coast Guard will hand control over to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators said Wednesday afternoon that both "pingers" from Flight 261 had been located, but added that it was unknown whether those signaling devices were still attached to the cockpit voice recorder or the flight data recorder.

The U.S. Navy is providing several ships and three remote operated vehicles (ROV) to assist in the operation.

The salvage ship Kellie Chouest, already at the scene, is equipped both with the ROV Scorpio and side-scan sonar. The ship is taking pictures of the debris field.

The vessel Sioux also has the sonar system and is being outfitted with an ROV.

The motor vessel Independence, which has an ROV and equipment that can to lift large pieces of wreckage, will also join the operation.

NTSB structure and air worthiness group investigators are examining all pieces of the plane that have been recovered.

Coast Guard and Navy ships combed a debris field 10 miles offshore overnight Tuesday, finding only tiny, twisted pieces of wreckage.

Private fishing boats that joined the search effort were effectively blocked Wednesday after the Coast Guard established an 18-mile perimeter around the crash site.

Media outlets, including CNN, using boats to cover the story were also being kept away. The Coast Guard offered no explanation for its action.

Pilots struggled to control jet

The MD-83 jetliner took off from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, bound for San Francisco and Seattle. It plunged into the sea after the pilot reported problems with the horizontal stabilizer, a wing-like structure on the tail that controls the pitch of the aircraft's nose.

If one black box -- the flight data recorder -- was programmed to monitor the stabilizer, it might reveal the condition of the device's electrical and hydraulic controls.

If not, officials would have to deduce what happened to the stabilizer by studying how other systems performed before the crash, said Barry Schiff, an aviation consultant and former TWA pilot.

The NTSB on Tuesday released preliminary transcripts of air traffic control communications with the airliner that showed the pilots struggled to control the plane for nearly 11 minutes before it vanished from radar and dove into the water.

During that time, the pilots were in radio contact with the Alaska Airlines maintenance base in Seattle. Alaska Airlines has handed over to NTSB investigators a 16-channel audio tape of those conversations.

Audio tape may hold clues

NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said the agency will study the tape as part of the crash investigation.

"It covers all of their conversations while they are trying to trouble-shoot this problem," Hall told CNN from his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The audio tape was being sent to NTSB's headquarters in Washington for further scrutiny, he said.

Hall said the tape included "significant background noise" but together with witness accounts should yield a "very good understanding of what the pilots were encountering and what they were trying to do with the difficulty, the problems that they had reported to air traffic control."

Jack Evans, an airline spokesman, said the plane had no previous stabilizer problems and the two pilots had thousands of hours of experience.

The Federal Aviation Administration had 44 reports of "service difficulty" for the plane that crashed dating to 1992, when it was built, but most dealt with problems involving emergency lights and sliding windows not opening.

In 1995, an engine failed and the plane landed without incident. The engine was replaced.

Meanwhile, an American Airlines MD-80 en route from Phoenix to Dallas on Wednesday returned to Phoenix airport and landed safely after the pilot reported problems keeping the plane level.

NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm said his agency would remove the plane's cockpit data recorder and interview the crew "as expeditiously as possible" to determine what went wrong with the jet.

Schlamm and other investigators refused to speculate whether there was a problem with the jet's horizontal stabilizers.

"I will add, if there is any safety problem or safety issue that surfaces at any time during the (Flight 261) investigation, we will address it expeditiously," promised NTSB member John Hammerschmidt.

Witness 'felt hopeless' watching descent

NTSB operation group investigators are interviewing pilots of four planes that were flying in the area and may have witnessed the Alaska Airlines crash.

Drew Gottshall, 45, a Channel Islands National Park worker, was putting up a trail sign near the Anacapa Island lighthouse when he heard the jet, looked up and watched it slam into the water 2 1/2 miles to the north.

Anacapa Island is about 11 miles off Point Mugu, California.

"The plane made a quick entry into the water upon impact and disappeared," Gottshall said in a statement released by the park service, which noted that at the NTSB's request it did not include observations of the plane's flight path and orientation.

"There was a point as I was watching the descent of the plane where I felt hopeless," Gottshall said. "It had a finality to it that came very quickly."

"After the plane hit the water and disappeared, there was just me and the sea gulls out there."

Relatives gathering near crash site

To be near the crash site, some of the relatives of the missing have come to Port Hueneme, near Oxnard, where the military and crash investigators from the NTSB have set up a joint command center.

Another 50 relatives have gathered at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. More are expected to arrive on Wednesday.

Alaska Airlines said it would take relatives to the crash site Thursday, assisted by the Red Cross. Such a visit is an "important part" of the healing process, said Kiloren Riddell, a Red Cross volunteer grief counselor.

Correspondents Siobhan Darrow, Greg LaMotte, Jim Hill and Don Knapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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