Jeff Knight comforts his sister, Jenny, as they grieve for their parents, Linda and Joseph Knight, who were aboard the plane

February 2, 2000
Web posted at: 11:56 a.m. EST (1656 GMT)

In this story: Relatives gathering near crash site Pilots struggled to control jet Witness 'felt hopeless' watching descent RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

PORT HUENEME, California -- More wreckage from Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was recovered overnight, but no survivors had been found in the choppy and chilly Pacific by Wednesday morning. The grim status of the search near Los Angeles may prompt the Coast Guard to end its rescue efforts and redirect the mission to one of recovering the plane from the ocean floor.

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     WEATHER CONDITIONS Point Mugu, CA Oxnard, CA    VIDEO CNN's Kalin Thomas-Samuel reports on how airlines communicate crash information to the families of victims and the media (February 2) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Anne McDermott shows the search and rescue efforts. (February 1) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN'a Anne McDermott reports that relatives and friends of the passengers are trying to cope with their loss. (February 1) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Carl Rochelle reports on the search for clues in the crash off the California coast. (February 1) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     AUDIO Statements and details on the crash     RESOURCES Flight 261 background Facts about Alaska Airlines     GALLERY Image gallery: The crash of Flight 261     ALSO The final minutes of Flight 261 Crash rekindles painful memories Pastor helps families 'buffer the shock' of crash Experts say no common thread in in-flight crashes Crash investigation focuses on airliner's stabilizer Alaska Airlines had flown for decades without catastrophe A look at McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series     MESSAGE BOARD Alaska Airlines crash

Investigators say they have detected an electronic pinger intended to help locate the planes' two "black boxes" in 700 feet of water.

Meantime, friends and relatives of the 88 people who were aboard the jet waited in an anguished vigil.

If the Coast Guard decides to call off its search for survivors, the National Transportation Safety Board will begin its attempt to retrieve the black boxes.

Vessels and underwater equipment to carry out that recovery operation are moving into place and the effort may begin "later today or tomorrow," NTSB Chairman Jim Hall told CNN Wednesday.

Hall said the NTSB also intends to interview the pilots of four planes that were flying in the area and may have witnessed the Alaska Airlines crash.

Coast Guard and Navy ships combed a debris field 10 miles offshore overnight, finding only tiny, twisted pieces of wreckage as they looked for survivors and clues to why the plane nose dived into the ocean Monday afternoon.

Private fishing boats that joined the search effort were effectively blocked Wednesday after a security zone around the crash site was expanded from 8 miles to 22 miles, Coast Guard spokesman Frank Dunn said

So far, searchers have found the bodies of a man, two women and an infant, pieces of wreckage and personal items scattered across the fuel-soaked water.

To be near the crash site, some of the relatives of the missing have come to Port Hueneme, near Oxnard, where the military and crash investigators from the NTSB set up a joint command center.

Another 50 relatives have gathered at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. More are expected to arrive on Wednesday.

The Red Cross plans to take them to the crash site on Thursday, CNN was told. Such a visit is an "important part" of the healing process, said Kiloren Riddell, a Red Cross volunteer grief counselor.

The MD-83 jetliner took off from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, bound for San Francisco and Seattle. It plunged into the sea after the pilot reported problems with the horizontal stabilizer, a wing-like structure on the tail that controls the pitch of the aircraft's nose.

If one black box -- the flight data recorder -- was programmed to monitor the stabilizer, it might reveal the condition of the device's electrical and hydraulic controls.

If not, officials would have to deduce what happened to the stabilizer by studying how other systems performed before the crash, said Barry Schiff, an aviation consultant and former TWA pilot.

The NTSB on Tuesday released preliminary transcripts of air traffic control communications with the airliner that showed the pilots struggled to control the plane for nearly 11 minutes before it vanished from radar and dove into the water.

During that time, the pilots were in radio contact with the Alaska Airlines maintenance base in Seattle. Hall said the NTSB had obtained an audio tape of those conversations and would study it as part of the crash investigation.

"It covers all of their conversations while they are trying to troubleshoot this problem," Hall told CNN.

Jack Evans, an airline spokesman, said the plane had no previous stabilizer problems and the two pilots had thousands of hours of experience.

The Federal Aviation Administration had 44 reports of "service difficulty" for the plane that crashed dating to 1992, when it was built, but most dealt with problems involving emergency lights and sliding windows not opening.

In 1995, an engine failed and the plane landed without incident. The engine was replaced.

Drew Gottshall, 45, a Channel Islands National Park worker, was putting up a trail sign near the Anacapa Island lighthouse when he heard the jet, looked up and watched it slam into the water 2-1/2 miles to the north.

Anacapa Island is about 11 miles off Point Mugu, California.

"The plane made a quick entry into the water upon impact, and disappeared," Gottshall said in a statement released by the park service, which noted that at the NTSB's request it did not include observations of the plane's flight path and orientation.

"There was a point as I was watching the descent of the plane where I felt hopeless," Gottshall said. "It had a finality to it that came very quickly."

"After the plane hit the water and disappeared, there was just me and the sea gulls out there."

Correspondents Siobhan Darrow, Greg LaMotte and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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