February 2, 2000
Web posted at: 6:00 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- Carl Rochelle, CNN correspondent, joined the CNN.com chat room on February 2, 2000 to discuss the NTSB briefing on the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261.

Carl Rochelle is a general assignment correspondent based in CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau.

Carl Rochelle participated in the chat by telephone from California and CNN.com provided a typist for him. The following is an edited transcript of the chat

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today Carl Rochelle and welcome to chat.

Carl Rochelle: Hello guests!

Chat Moderator: What new information did we find out in the News conference today?

Carl Rochelle: There are several things. They have now changed this from a search and rescue mission to a search and recovery mission. This means first that they have given up any hope of finding a survivor, based on the water temp -- low 50s, and the amount of time that has elapsed since the plane went down. They have found 4 victims... that is all.

Also it means that the leadership of this investigation, now goes to the NTSB. The safety board was always leading the investigatory phase, but their actions were always driven by the Coast Guard's rescue operation. This is always the case as long as there is any chance of recovering any survivors.

The other things that are significant, there are salvage ships here now. Significant among them is the Kellie Chouest. It is a commercial salvage ship that routinely works with the Navy. It has an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). It is a device that has a camera and grapple arms to recover items from the bottom of the ocean.

Additionally two Navy ships have ROVs. And we believe at least one will have its ROV in the water today, and begin to look for the black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Two other things we learned. One, the crew that flew the MD83 into Puerto Vallarta before the crew that was flying it when it crashed, reported some mechanical difficulties. The board didn't elaborate but it is believed that the difficulties they reported affected the horizontal stabilizer trim. Many investigators believe this caused the plane to ultimately crash. That crew is being frozen in place until the safety board investigators can talk to them.

The other information; NTSB chairman Jim Hall told us on CNN this morning that there were tapes of conversations between the crew and the maintenance base in Seattle discussing the problem they were having with a stabilizer trim on their aircraft.

Question from lettuce: Why did it take so long to designate this as a "Search and Recovery" operation?

Carl Rochelle: The reason why is... several reasons. They are considering the families of the victims who want every consideration made in case their loved one did survive the crash. It is a procedural thing if a survivor was to be spotted they would still be picked up. And any of the recovery workers who are on scene will continue to watch for individuals in the water. But there are cases on record of people surviving a crash in chilly water well beyond what normally would be expected. It is really a tough decision for the officials to tell the family members "this is it, there is no more hope that your loved one can be found alive."

Question from redeye: Carl, I have a question, is it possible that stabilizers be pointed different ways, is it physically possible for one to look up and the other look down?

Carl Rochelle: In fact, yes. In this particular aircraft, one can go up and one can go down. The problem was with the trim. In this aircraft, the trim is similar to a jackscrew. It runs the forward part of the horizontal stabilizer up and down to accomplish trimming the aircraft. If it is jammed, in an extreme nose up or nose down position, it could make controlling the aircraft extremely difficult. And this may very well be what happened. Pilots I know who regularly fly the MD80 series aircraft say for the trim to be jammed in a nose up condition would be the most difficult to deal with.

Question from ron: What can you tell us about the reported American Airlines MD80 with stabilizer problems earlier today?

Carl Rochelle: That is correct. An American Airlines MD80 on a flight from Phoenix to Dallas reported mechanical difficulties with the stabilizer trim, declared an emergency, and returned to Phoenix. The return was successful, the plane landed with no problem, and of course investigators will look at this emergency for more information. Just as a point, when a problem is recorded with an aircraft, especially one that causes a crash, pilots tend to be very careful and very observant of that problem.

Question from Gary: Carl - Is the focus on the elevator trim tabs, or the elevator itself ? Earlier reports indicated a jammed elevator, I believe.

Carl Rochelle: There are two primary ways of accomplishing trim. One is using trim tabs. Trim tabs are quite literally a small tab on the back part of a horizontal stabilizer that are maneuvered in a direction of opposite the movement of the elevator to accomplish trim. The other primary method is to move the forward part or the horizontal stabilizer up and down. The MD80 accomplishes trim by moving the horizontal stabilizer up and down. Just so people understand, there are trim tabs on rudders and on ailerons. They are used to trim control pressures and stabilize the aircraft in a particular flight mode.

Question from cc: The MD-80 is too old, why don't they take it out of fleets? Question from ken: Should we be worried about flying in a DC9 type aircraft?

Carl Rochelle: What you may be thinking about is the fact that this is a variation of the DC 9 which has been around a long time. But this plane is an updated, upgraded version of the DC9, and by airline standards is quite young. It was purchased by Alaska Airlines in 1992. It is only seven or eight years old. That makes it a relative baby as far as airlines are concerned.

But the question of airplanes being old is moot as long as the proper maintenance and upkeep is done. I have personally flown airplanes made in the late 1930's and in the 40's. And no, I didn't get to fly them when they were new.

Question from Mary: Have there been incidents where the stabilizer has malfunctioned and yet the plane still landed safely?

Carl Rochelle: Usually if there is a malfunction in the stabilizer, the crews can overcome it. You can fly an airplane with the trim inoperative as long as it isn't jammed in a manner that would cause you to lose control of the airplane. And conversely, you can fly a plane using the trim devices if the elevators, the horizontal elevators are inoperative. There is redundancy built into almost every control function in an airliner.

Chat Moderator: Any final observations to share with us?

Carl Rochelle: At this point, the answers to what went wrong in this crash, based on what I have seen and heard so far, may come fairly quickly. And unlike a number of recent crashes, there may be complete answers to what went wrong, unlike the Egypt Air 990 and TWA 800, where the actual cause of the accidents are still not clearly known.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for chatting with us today

Carl Rochelle: Absolutely! My pleasure, I'm happy to do it anytime. Bye bye.