You're a reporter for the Los Angeles bureau of The Associated Press. You get a call from Kathi Smythe, a spokeswoman at the FAA field office in LA. She tells you that a plane crashed about 10 minutes ago, at 4:36 p.m. She says the plane was coming from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and was heading for San Francisco, and then Seattle. It crashed in the ocean, about 10 miles off the coast. The plane was an MD-83. It was operated by Alaska Airlines. She says it was flight number 261, and that 88 people were aboard.
You call Coast Guard Lt. Chuck Diorio, who tells you that search and rescue boats are already on the scene. They've found several bodies, but he's not sure how many. He says the water is 58 degrees. He says they haven't found any survivors.
You call Kathy back and she tells you she has some more information. She says that just minutes before the plane went down, the pilots radioed to the control tower that they were having problems controlling the plane. More specifically, she says the pilot reported problems with the horizontal stabilizer and asked to be diverted to Los Angeles for an emergency landing. Shortly after that, radar indicates the plane plunged 17,000 feet and was lost from radar screens.
Smythe tells you that the horizontal stabilizer includes panels that pitch the nose of the aircraft up or down. If a plane loses its horizontal stabilizer, there is no way to keep the nose pointed to the proper angle, and the plane will begin an uncontrollable dive, she says.
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