Alaska Airlines Flight 261 ATC Recording

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[jackkitchen]

Can you imagine how sick to your stomach you would be if you were a pilot seeing that plane plunge into the water? I can barely handle listening to this. Yet I thank you for this recording. Incredible.

[MithridatesOfficial]

Pilots got an award for heroism... There was nothing they could have done to save that plane considering what they later found out was the problem... Alaska Airlines maintenance cutting corners in their work killed those poor people. Should have been charged with manslaughter..

[ThisHandleFeatureIsStupid]

"He hit the water. He's, uh...he's down."
The shakiness in witness voices speaks volumes. 😥

[shaniarover]

the quiver in the captain's voice. he was trying so hard to stay calm. heartbreaking.

[BIGDROC]

For those wonder why the ATC said “Very good” in a very obvious serious situation.

The term “Very Good” in aviation basically means “I understand what your saying”. It’s just a term for acknowledgement.

[johnnyc]

It's amazing how you can feel the change in emotions from concerned, to urgency, to fear, to hopelessness, and ultimately, sadness in everyone's voices.

[matthewk]

Rest in peace Stacey Schuyler, you were a wonderful friend

[joesmoe]

One thing was made clear by the CVR, those pilots NEVER gave up, they fought until the very end. Balls of steel, both of them, RIP.

[nevelis]

Captain: "Yeah we've got it back under control her-"
First Officer: "No we don't"

:(

[katygilday]

God, you could hear the barely restrained fear in the Captain's voice. RIP crew and passengers of this plane

[madam]

That's one of the saddest crashes tbh. The crew did everything. . .

[ForPapaandGrandma]

For anyone unfamiliar with the details of this tragedy, I highly recommend that you search a documentary on the crash investigation, though it's likely to make your blood boil! In short, Alaska Airlines decided to cut corners on maintenance and repairs of their planes to increase profits. This deliberate negligence directly led to this fatal crash.

[jamesrudd]

The executives at Alaska Airlines should have gone to prison for this.

[mercyprosperity]

Heartbreaking. Such professionals. They have two minutes to live.... and he's "We're going to do a little troubleshooting."
I'm thinking about those twenty seconds at the end. God bless them

[richvan]

Both pilots were military vets. Pure professionalism til the end. RIP.

[oakleyjacket]

The crew gave it everything. They didn’t deserve to die.

[Drummer_Jeff]

"yes he uhhh... he hit the water. He's, he's down"

I can't even imagine how the rest of those other flights conversations went after watching that happen. You can hear the sound of shock in their voice

[singleproppilot]

For those wondering, this accident is very unlikely to happen again simply because newer airplanes use a much better design to adjust horizontal stabilizer incidence. The DC-9 and MD-80 used a steel ACME screw with an aluminum nut riding on it. The idea was that the nut would always wear faster than the screw, since it’s a much smaller part that’s easier to replace. Even with proper lubrication, the nut has a finite life span, and was calculated to wear just so much with every flight hour. Periodic lubrication was required, and endplay checks would be performed to find out just how much life the nut had left. The problem was that Alaska Airlines had asked for and been granted an increase to the lubrication interval. Several lubrication points on the accident air craft were clogged and would not take grease. They were not repaired, starving the mechanism of lubrication and causing it to wear much faster than normal. Finally, they were using locally fabricated tooling to measure stabilizer endplay which was later found to be inaccurate. This led to the nut on the accident airplane wearing out until the threads stripped out in flight, causing the stabilizer to go in to a full nose down position, and beyond. There were no mechanical stops to keep it from going beyond its designed maximum nose down limit. Modern airplanes have done away with ACME jackscrews, instead relying on ballscrews for stabilizer trim. In this arrangement, the screw is a raceway of U-shaped channels, and the “nut” is made of many small ball bearings. There is no sliding friction in this arrangement, and it is expected to last the entire life of the airplane. They do require grease, but it functions mostly to drive water out and thus prevent corrosion. Even without grease, a ball nut will still roll fine with minimal wear. Besides that, stabilizers on newer airplanes cannot go beyond basic mechanical limits. This is both a function of their basic configuration and a desirable safety feature.

[NerdX]

I think all crashes are tragic, but for some reason this one can really bring a tear in my eye. The crew fought so hard to get this plane under control. Even in the last few seconds the pilot wanted to make a passenger announcement and explain why they inverted the plane.

[xygomorphic]

Pilots amaze me with their fearlessness and professionalism. They guys were literally flying upside down, yet still kept enough composure to follow their training and trying everything to get that airplane back on the ground intact. No matter how many times you fly, you can never forget you're trusting your life to the guys on the ground who inspect, maintain, and work hard to keep the airplane airworthy.