Alaska Airlines Sucks!

Dear Dave,

Follow up to my earlier e-mail from Manzanillo…

Heard the news about the “two loud bangs” on flight 261. That´s EXACTLY what happened to our plane on Jan 20th!!! We heard six loud bangs from the back of the plane, veered right, then made the emergency landing! That could have been the same plane as 261, or it could have been the same engine. OR it could be a systemic problems with the engines on MD 80s! Here´s my list of Q´s. You´re the best guy I know to get the answers, and I want some answers before I get on another Alaska flight home.

1. What happened to Alaska Flight 222 from SeaTac on the morning of January 20, 2000?
2. I want a copy of the incident report. Where do I get it?
3. What happened to the engine we supposedly blew on take-off?
4. Where is that engine now?
5. What Alaska PLANE number was Flight 222 on Jan 20th?
6. Was it the same plane number as Flight 261?
7. If not, did the 261 plane receive 222´s engine?
8. If it was the same plane, how lucky were we 222 people!
9. *****IF THESE PLANES WERE DIFFERENT NUMBERS, THE ENTIRE MD-80 FLEET SHOULD BE GROUNDED IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!! TWO SUCH INCIDENTS ON SIMILAR PLANES IN LESS THAN 10 DAYS TELLS ME THE PROBLEM IS NOT JUST COINCIDENTAL!!!
10. I want a copy of the passenger list, complete with addresses and phone numbers, of Flight 222/ Jan 20. How do I get it?

Jef Jaisun in Mexico

Dear Chron Staff:

Yesterday, *before* last night´s Alaska Airlines incident at SFO, I sent the following e-mail to my media associates in Seattle. I flew here to Manzanillo on Alaska three weeks ago. Needless to say, NOBODY here wants to get on an Alaska plane at this point. I am now more adamant than ever that the entire Alaska MD-80 fleet should be grounded immediately!

Please help us out down here and give this e-mail to whomever in the Editorial Department is handling the Alaska Air disaster stories. I plan to be here for several more weeks (or longer!), so I can be contacted at this address for more information.

My sincerest thanks, and the thanks of my many Alaska passenger friends.

Jef Jaisun

Seattle

P.S. According to my Jan 19 print-out from Alaska´s website, there is no Flight #289. However, it appears to be the same route and time as the original #261! And yes, I knew people on Flight 261.

Hi Steve,

This is your old J-A accomplice (and token staff hippie) Jef Jaisun checking in from Mexico, where me and a few dozen others survived an unreported aborted Alaska MD-80 take-off/emergency landing at SeaTac three weeks ago. I wrote a note to Casey, Dave Ross and several others about it. Today someone showed up here with a copy of the Feb 1 Times containing your article, so I thought I´d bring you up to date. ***PLEASE*** see if any of the investigative crew at the Times can find us some answers before we all walk home.

News get here slowly, and it wasn´t til yesterday that we heard about the other mishaps at Phoenix and Reno. You can imagine how enthused we are about getting on another Alaska MD-80. My parents were coming back to Seattle from Vallarta, in the air at the same time 261 went down!

In addition to the info below, I just spoke with an older couple here in the cybercafe. They tell me two weeks ago or so their kids endured THREE aborted take-offs/flights on Alaska from Phoenix, on MD 80´s. One flight had them within 20 minutes of Puerto Vallarta , then had to turn around and go all the way back to PHX because the Mexican airports weren´t eqippped to deal with the emergency! I haven´t contacted them yet, but here´s their e-mail:

Pat and Kim Field
fieldfam@oberon.ark.com
or www.fieldfam.com

It would great to get their input.

After you read my account below, you´ll get an even bigger picture of why I think Alaska is in the tank. I wrote them yesterday and ripped them a new air vent, but someone in authority has to take immediate steps to shut them down before we all become so much debris.

I´ve become the local pipeline for information, so please keep me posted on anything you might turn up.

Thanks, dude.

Jef