-
-
- The article below, received from our recipient John Prukop,
who is an airline transport pilot, makes a wealth of good points and poses
a
- number of questions about this crash which our government
MUST BE FORCED TO ANSWER.
-
- NewsHawk® Inc.
-
-
- Alaska Air FLT 261 - Oddly Haunting Questions
- By John R. Prukop <ccw@wolfenet.com
- Airline Transport Pilot
- Legal Researcher
- Private Law Instructor
- 2-3-00
-
-
- In addition to the well thought-out material from NewsHawk,
Inc. regarding the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 and the tragic loss
of all 88 souls aboard, these further KNOWN FACTS AND THE QUESTIONS THAT
THEY RAISE should be considered:
-
- 1. NTSB states that the previous flight crew flying this
particular MD-83, with the flight originating in Anchorage, experienced
"mechanical problems" on its way down to Mexico - the flight
just before the one that ended with the deaths of all those aboard. NTSB
states this crew reported control problems with the horizontal stabilizer.
Alaska Airlines emphatically DENIES there was ANY anomaly with this aircraft.
Who is telling the truth? Was this story 'planted' by NTSB as a cover?
Was Flight 261 subjected to an intentional or accidental military mishap?
-
- 2. NTSB Chairman Jim Hall -- the same fellow who has
continually LIED to the public about the cause of the downing of TWA-800
and how its center fuel tank caused the crash by 'exploding' (NOT!) --
said the pilots of Alaska Flight 261 - the Monday afternoon flight from
Puerto Vallarta bound for San Francisco and Seattle - had turned to a maintenance
crew in Seattle for help in their efforts to regain control of the plane.
Where is the confirmation from Alaska Airlines regarding this statement?
If, in fact, there are tapes of the crewmember conversations with the Seattle
maintenance base regarding a control problem with the horizontal stabilizer
in the possession of Alaska Airlines or the NTSB, why haven't TRANSCRIPTS
of those conversations or audio excerpts been released to the media? Why
the "he said ... she said" routine as reported by the media?
-
- 3. At the time of the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight
261, the MD-83 was located either within or slightly adjacent to, Restricted
Area R-2519, which the Los Angeles (LAX) Sectional Aeronautical Chart as
well as Low Altitude and High Altitude Enroute Charts depicts as being
under control of Naval Air Station Point Mugu, to "unlimited"
altitudes and "continuous" hours of operation. Restricted Area
R-2519 is also contiguous to Warning Area W-289, which is located in an
expanding arc further Southwest and South, out into the Pacific Ocean,
encompassing Anacapa and Channel Islands. W-289 is also to "unlimited
altitudes" but with "intermittent operation".
-
- The importance of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 being located
in or adjacent to these Restricted and Warning areas is important from
the aspect that Naval Air Station Point Mugu, in concert with the China
Lake Naval Weapons Center and other military installations in the area,
routinely conduct high-tech weapons testing in these areas, with potential
danger to aircraft transiting the area. For example, "Restricted Areas",
such as R-2519, "denote the existence of unusual, often invisible,
hazards to aircraft such as artillery firing, aerial gunnery, or guided
missiles." (FAA Airman's Information Manual, Section 3-4-3).
-
- Similarly, a "Warning Area", such as W-289
is "airspace of defined dimensions, extending from three nautical
miles outward from the coast of the United States, that contains activity
that may be hazardous to nonparticipating aircraft." (FAA Airman's
Information Manual, Section 3-4-4) It is EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT AND TROUBLING
that Alaska Airlines Flight 261 DID NOT HAVE A PROBLEM UNTIL IT ARRIVED
WITHIN, NEAR OR ADJACENT TO RESTRICTED AREA R-2519 AND WARNING AREA W-289.
Was there military weapons testing in progress as Flight 261 approached
this area? Was the MD-83 or tail section of Flight 261 struck or damaged
by some "invisible hazard" or "aerial gunnery", or
"guided missile" that INDUCED control problems with the horizontal
stabilizer, and subsequently caused the complete and total loss of control
of the airplane?
-
- 4. It is also extremely significant and troubling to
learn that NTSB placed a 'muzzle' on at least one eye-witness, who so far
appears to be the closest eye-witness, to the crash site. The following
quote from Associated Press dated February 2, 2000 at 12:05 ET raises the
suspicion that NTSB is doing 'damage control' by limiting what the media
is reporting, to wit:
-
- "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. '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."
-
- 5. Over the years we have come to know that the military
industrial complex have experimented on various people, much like they
were laboratory animals, with radiation, toxic poisons, etc., and in some
cases "shock testing" an entire city to determine the results
and effectiveness of the experiments. Is it possible that Alaska Airlines
Flight 261 was determined to be an expendable resource, and because of
certain personages on board, "terminated" for purposes of political
expediency?
-
- 6. Perhaps the most disturbing commentary from the media
is the absence and ABSOLUTE SILENCE BY THE FLIGHT CREW OF ALASKA 261 in
the last six minutes before the airplane impacted the Pacific Ocean. This
is extremely odd given the fact the PTT (push-to-talk) microphone button
for radio transmission is located on the control wheel. Why didn't either
of the pilots at least cry out to Los Angeles Center, "Alaska 261
is going down" or "we've lost control, we're going in" ...
or at least something? If, in fact, there was total silence on the part
of the flight crew, that raises the additional suspicion that perhaps they
were incapacitated, given the further report by the media that the aircraft
was spinning and tumbling. This AP report at 12:05 AM ET on February 2nd,
raises the specter of something more sinister going on with Flight 261:
-
- "NTSB member John Hammerschmidt released preliminary
transcripts of air traffic control communications with the airliner. The
last routine transmission came at 3:55 p.m. PST, when the flight was cleared
to continue to San Francisco. At 4:10 p.m. the pilots said they had control
difficulties and were descending below 26,000 feet. A few seconds later
they advised they were at 23,700 feet and there was 'some discussion about
their ability to control the aircraft,' Hammerschmidt said. Over the next
few minutes, the pilots said they 'we're kind of stabilized and going to
do some troubleshooting,' but then said they had a jammed stabilizer. At
4:16 they were cleared for an emergency landing in Los Angeles. The controllers
cleared the plane to 17,000 feet. The crew acknowledged that in what was
the last known transmission from Flight 261, Hammerschmidt said. At 4:21
p.m. the aircraft dropped from radar."
-
- NewsHawk has already raised the issue of Flight 261 being
cleared for an emergency landing at LAX, located 40 miles away, when Naval
Air Station Point Mugu with its 12,000 foot runway was immediately adjacent
to the crippled flight's location, a mere five or ten miles away. It does
not make any sense that the flight crew would request an emergency landing
at an airport over 40 miles distant, knowing that they might never make
it with the kind of control problem they were apparently experiencing.
It is further incongruous that LAX Center would not suggest or recommend
NAS Point Mugu as a viable alternative to flying to an airport 40 miles
away, versus one as close by as Point Mugu with all kinds of emergency
equipment the Navy has at its disposal to deal with an airplane crash.
-
- From the AP story above, roughly 5 or 6 minutes elapsed
after the purported "last known transmission" from Flight 261,
apparently after which the MD-83 went completely out of control. During
these 5 or 6 minutes, did Flight 261 completely lose the rudder and horizontal
stabilizer, or the ability to control them? And lastly, unlike the EgyptAir
990 crash into the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket Island on October 31, 1999,
where NO BODIES WERE EVER REPORTED AS HAVING BEEN RECOVERED, the NTSB reported
in the instance of the Flight 261 crash that only four bodies were recovered,
yet the debris field as shown by the media was of small pieces of the wreckage,
as if the airplane disintegrated into a million pieces. We've all seen
the shoe floating and some of the luggage. The debris field doesn't jive
with the number of bodies recovered, and at least from this writer's perspective,
is INCONSISTENT with an 80-degree nose-down impact of the airplane as reported
by NTSB. An airplane striking the water at the speed and angle exhibited
by Alaska Flight 261 would result in the utter explosion and disintegration
of the airplane and its contents; it would be like slamming the airplane
into a concrete wall. Where are the bodies, or body parts? And why haven't
the media shown any thing other than the repeated showing of the 'shoe'
and 'luggage'? We have seen literally no evidence of any of the 'salvage'
of the MD-83.
-
- Alaska Airlines Flight 261 may well have had a control
problem with its horizontal stabilizer; but what external force initiated
it? Remember, everything was "NORMAL" .... up until 3:55 PM,
when Flight 261 neared Naval Air Station Point Mugu and the weapons testing
area.
-
- /s/ John R. Prukop,
- Airline Transport Pilot
- Legal Researcher
- Private Law Instructor
-
-
- "Reason obeys itself; and ignorance does whatever
is dictated to it."
- --Thomas Paine, Rights of Man ("Conclusion")
-
- "All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution
are null and void."
- --Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (2 Cranch) 137 (1803)
-
- CCW Coalition
- Concerned Citizens Of Washington
- Citizens For A Constitutional Washington
- John R. Prukop, Executive Director
- 11910-C Meridian Ave. E., #142
- Puyallup, Washington 98373
-
- e-mail: ccw@wolfenet.com
-
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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