OXNARD, Calif. (AP) -- An Alaska Airlines MD-83 bound from Mexico to San Francisco with 88 people aboard crashed in the Pacific Ocean northwest of Los Angeles on Monday after reporting control problems. Only bodies were immediately found.
A large field of debris rolled in big swells off Point Mugu as aircraft and small boats converged on the area just before sunset. Hours later, the powerful lights of squid boats illuminated the inky blackness as cutters and a Navy ship continued the search.
Several bodies were found, said Coast Guard Lt. Chuck Diorio.
On the water, deckhands on a fishing boat collected body parts, Mexican toys, a stuffed animal, a shoe, cushions and aircraft insulation. "It's pretty disturbing, but somebody's got to do it," deckhand David Searles, 31, told reporters aboard the boat.
A utility vessel with debris on deck arrived in nearby Port Hueneme after dark.
Flight 261 from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle was reported down at 4:36 p.m., said airline spokesman Jack Evans.
There were 83 passengers and five crewmembers aboard, Evans said. Of the passengers, 32 were bound for San Francisco, 47 were bound for Seattle, three were continuing on to Eugene, Ore., and one to Fairbanks, Alaska. The two pilots were based in Los Angeles and the three flight attendants were based in Seattle.
The passengers included three Alaska Airlines employees, four employees of sister airline Horizon and 23 family or friends of those seven employees or the crew.
"We will do anything and everything to find out exactly what transpired," Alaska Chairman John Kelly told a late- night press conference in Los Angeles, holding out hope that there would be survivors. "I am an eternal optimist," Kelly said. "That's some cold water, some deep water. It's not the best thing you'd ever want in the world, but miracles have happened before."
Kelly said the pilot had more than 10,000 hours of flying time with Alaska and the first officer had more then 8,000 hours.
The crash site was 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles International Airport, about 10 miles offshore between the main- land port of Oxnard and Anacapa Island.
In San Francisco, four people waiting for the flight were led away by airline workers. A few relatives came to Los Angeles International, where they tended to by psychologists and clergy, said American Red Cross spokeswoman Brenda-Victoria Castillo.
"Every resource is out there to find people," said Coast Guard Capt. George Wright. "We're actively searching for survivors. . . In 58-degree water temperature, people can survive. We're not going to quit until we're positive there's absolutely no chance."
The plane reported mechanical problems and requested a diversion to Los Angeles, FAA operations officer Diana Joubert said. The diversion was granted and the plane was headed to Los Angeles when it crashed, Joubert said.
"Radar indicates if fell from 17,000 feet and then was lost from radar," San Francisco airport spokesman Ron Wilson told KRON-TV in San Francisco.
A National Park Service ranger on Anacapa Island saw the airliner go down and was first to report it, said spokes- woman Susan Smith at the Channel Islands National Park headquarters in Ventura Harbor. "He observed a jet going down in the Santa Barbara Channel. From his observation it was nose first," Smith said..
The weather was clear at the crash site, and the water typically has a temperature in the low 50s this time of year. Water depth estimates at the site range from 300 feet to 750 feet..
Evans said the pilot had reported having problems with the "stabilizer trim" shortly before the plane crashed. If the pilots were having trouble trimming the horizontal stabilizer, it would mean that they were having difficulty bringing the plane into the proper pitch up or down.
The stabilizer is brought into balance, or "trimmed," by spinning a wheel in the cockpit. When a plane has the proper trim, its nose will fly level, instead of pitching up or down..
Evans said the aircraft had no previous stabilizer trim problems. He also said the plane had a low-level service check on Jan. 11 and a more thorough check as part of normal maintenance last January..
The MD-83 is part of the MD-80 series of aircraft built by McDonnell Douglas' commercial aircraft unit, which is now part of Boeing..
John Thom, Boeing's Douglas aircraft unit spokesman, said the plane was a model MD-83 that was delivered to Alaska Airlines in May 1992..
The plane had logged 25,584 flight hours and 14,315 "cycles," Evans said. A "cycle" includes one takeoff and one landing..
Evans said the plane last was serviced Sunday, although he could not describe the nature of the servicing. He said the plane got what is known as an " A " check on Jan. 11 and a "C" check on Jan. 13, 1999. He said a "C" check is most comprehensive, an " A " check the least comprehensive.
Alaska Airlines is a popular carrier on routes along the West Coast and to Mexican and Canadian destinations. The airline has more than 80 aircraft, including MD-80s and Boeing 737s..
At the end of 1998, the average age of Alaska's fleet was 7.6 years, the youngest fleet in the nation, according to the airline.
Alaska carried 13.1 million passengers in 1998..
Alaska Airlines, which has a distinctive image of an Eskimo painted on the tails of its planes, has an excellent safety record. It serves more than 40 cities in Alaska, Canada, Mexico and five Western states.
The most recent fatal crash in the United States involving an MD-80 series jet was last summer's American Airlines accident in Little Rock, Ark. Eleven people were killed and 110 injured when an MD-82 landed in high wind and heavy rain, ran off the runway, broke apart and caught fire. The MD-80 is a twin-jet version of the more widely known DC-9, with a single aisle and an engine on each side of the tail. It went into service in 1980 and has had at least five variations that offer different ranges and seating capacities.
Alaska Airlines, based in Seattle, operates several flights from Puerto Vallarta, a resort on Mexico's Pacific coast, to San Jose, San Francisco and other California cities..
The airline had two fatal accidents in the 1970s, both in Alaska, according to Airsafe.com, a Web site that tracks plane crashes..
In 1971, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 727-100 approaching Juneau crashed into a mountain slope after the crew had received misleading navigational information. All 104 passengers and seven crew members and [sic] were killed..
In 1976, one passenger was killed when a 727 overran the runway after landing in Ketchikan.