A card is left at a makeshift memorial for Alaska Airline victims

February 3, 2000
Web posted at: 1:50 p.m. EST (1850 GMT)

In this story: Too deep to dive Stabilizer problem reported earlier? 'Tumbling, spinning, nose down' RELATED STORIES, SITES

PORT HUENEME, California (CNN) -- The cockpit voice recorder salvaged from an Alaska Airlines jet on the ocean floor is in good condition, according to authorities who said Thursday they've also found the pinger device for the second "black box" -- the flight data recorder.

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 Jim Moret reports on the vital role that private boats and volunteers played in the search for survivors from the Alaska Airlines crash. QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K 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     MESSAGE BOARD Alaska Airlines crash     CHAT TRANSCRIPTS CNN Correspondent Charles Feldman Brendan Murphy, former US Navy Diver CNN Correspondent Carl Rochelle Burden of Proof Transcript: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Crash Investigation

The pinger, which signals the location of a black box, was located during the night but was no longer attached to the flight data recorder, said Navy Capt. Terry Labrecque. "We are still looking for the box and we still expect to find it," he told CNN.

Investigators, meantime, were expected to interview the two pilots who flew the same MD-83 jet to Mexico just before the ill-fated return flight, which nose-dived into the ocean near Los Angeles, killing all 88 people on board.

Also Thursday, Alaska Airlines and Red Cross officials planned to take more friends and relatives of the victims to Point Mugu Naval Station, a coastal location near the crash site. The private trip will take them to a secluded beach where they can pray, touch the water and the beach, and meditate.

The sand in nearby Oxnard, California, is already the site of makeshift memorials. There are tentative plans for a memorial service on Saturday.

Employees of Alaska Airlines and a sister carrier, Horizon Air, planned to observe a moment of silence Thursday in memory of the victims of Flight 261 at 4:36 p.m. PST, the time the plane crashed on Monday.

Searchers on the salvage vessel Kellie Chouest recovered the cockpit voice recorder just before sundown Wednesday. The device, which records conversations and other sounds in the cockpit, was found in 700 feet of water by a remote-controlled robot named Scorpio.

The cockpit voice recorder was "intact and in pretty much pristine condition," Labrecque told CNN.

The still-missing flight data recorder should contain information about the Flight 261's mechanical operation.

As the search for the device continued Thursday, ships with side-scan sonar equipment that can make detailed maps of debris on the ocean floor began searching the crash site and two other remote-control submersibles like Scorpio were en route.

The wreckage is well below the 300-foot safety limit for divers -- and most of the bodies are believed pinned in the debris on the bottom of the ocean. Searchers have recovered the remains of only four passengers. The search for survivors was called off Wednesday.

The retrieved cockpit voice recorder was shipped to Washington for analysis.

Investigators hope it will provide clues to what happened in the final moments of Monday's flight, including details about the jet's horizontal stabilizer -- a wing-like structure on the tail that keeps the plane flying level.

A few minutes before the crash, the pilots described the stabilizer as jammed.

On Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported the plane had horizontal stabilizer problems on its trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the leg before the return flight bound for San Francisco and Seattle.

Airline spokesman Jack Evans in Seattle denied the report: "We stand by what we said earlier this week which is that we're not aware of any maintenance anomalies with this aircraft."

Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, called on anyone with information about the lost plane to contact investigators. "They do not need to be going to newspapers ... That is irresponsible behavior," he told CNN Thursday.

Hall said the NTSB is looking into the earlier flight and would interview those pilots Thursday in California. "We will substantiate what occurred on the flight leg previous to the accident flight."

Jim Hall, NTSB chairman, talks to CNN about the voice recorder box Thursday 764K/70 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The final moments of the flight were described by investigators as a terrifying plunge into the Pacific Ocean. They said witnesses saw no signs of fire or smoke when the jet hit the water in one piece.

As the plane passed over Anacapa Island, just off the coast, a witness heard several popping sounds and watched the jet turn and hit the ocean, said John Hammerschmidt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

"The aircraft was twisting, flying erratically, nose rocking," he said at a news conference late Wednesday, citing the witness. He also said pilots in the vicinity described the plane as "tumbling, spinning, nose down, continuous roll, corkscrewing and inverted."

The agency, which is trying to determine the cause of the crash, will rely on radar data, information from the black boxes and a fuzzy photograph taken from eight miles away to piece together the minutes between the pilots' first report of mechanical problems and the crash.

Correspondents Siobhan Darrow, Greg LaMotte, Don Knapp and Carl Rochelle contributed to this report.

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