Airliner Accidents and Incidents Caused by Maintenance Errors: Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Japan Airlines Flight 123

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 27. Chapters: Alaska Airlines Flight 261, Japan Airlines Flight 123, American Airlines Flight 191, China Airlines Flight 611, Tuninter Flight 1153, Aeroperu Flight 603, Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, British Airways Flight 5390, Air Midwest Flight 5481, Continental Express Flight 2574, Northwest Airlines Flight 5, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706, Mexicana Flight 940, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303, PBA Flight 1039, China Southwest Airlines Flight 4509, Sonic Blue Airways Flight 604, 1977 Aviateca Convair 240 crash. Excerpt: Alaska Airlines Flight 261, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft, experienced a fatal accident on January 31, 2000 in the Pacific Ocean about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) north of Anacapa Island, California. The two pilots, three cabin crewmembers, and 83 passengers on board were killed and the aircraft was destroyed. It was the highest ever death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-83. Alaska 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Lic. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington, with an intermediate stop planned at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that inadequate maintenance led to excessive wear and catastrophic 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. The thread failure was caused by excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines's insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly. The aircraft, manufactured in 1992, had ov...