What happened
On the evening of January 31, 2000, Alaska Airlines flight 261 was conducting a scheduled international service from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Seattle, Washington, with a planned stop in San Francisco. The aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 registered as N963AS, was flying under instrument flight rules in visual meteorological conditions.
At approximately 16:21 Pacific standard time, the aircraft went down in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2.7 miles north of Anacapa Island, California. The impact with the ocean surface was severe enough to destroy the airframe. There were 88 fatalities recorded, which included all 2 pilots, 3 cabin crewmembers, and 83 passengers.
Findings
No specific contributing factors or conclusions regarding the mechanical or operational failures were provided in the source material.