Oxnard (in California) shouldn’t be a family title, however it’s a spot I visited as a child rising up within the San Fernando Valley. It was a quiet place the place you might escape to the seashore surrounded by agriculture and navy, and it felt like a world away. So, we did an extended-family journey this August and that’s once I discovered that there’s been a somber addition to the world in the previous couple of many years, a memorial for the victims of Alaska flight 261. I assumed it was very nicely finished, so I assumed I’d share it right here.
Alaska 261 was the notorious jackscrew incident. That was the flight from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco and on to Seattle on January 31, 2000 that bumped into management issues when passing by Los Angeles. After an preliminary dive that the pilots have been capable of arrest round 24,000 ft, they did the whole lot of their energy to get the airplane over to LAX, however there was nothing they may do to save lots of the airplane. A couple of minutes later, your entire jackscrew meeting failed attributable to upkeep issues. The MD-83 went right into a steep dive and roll and finally went inverted. That they had almost stopped the dive as soon as they have been the wrong way up, however they couldn’t get it safely on the bottom.
The pilots, Captain Ted Thompson and First Officer Invoice Tansky, fought a outstanding struggle. I can’t think about there was the rest they may have finished on this inconceivable state of affairs. Ultimately, they misplaced the battle and the airplane plunged into the Pacific Ocean between Anacapa Island and Port Hueneme on the mainland (proper subsequent to Oxnard), killing all 88 onboard.
Ultimately, this was discovered to be a large upkeep program failure, and Alaska needed to make critical reforms, however you will get all the small print of that within the NTSB accident report. I wish to preserve my concentrate on this memorial.
The households ended up commissioning one thing to be inbuilt Port Hueneme, the closest level on the mainland to the place the accident occurred. The thought was to create an enormous sundial on the seashore, and we visited on an appropriately grey and gloomy day.
On the entrance to the memorial is a plaque explaining why it’s right here. If you happen to are available in from the seashore as we did, you is perhaps very confused about what you’re seeing.
The half wall surrounding the seashore aspect of the memorial has a small plaque recognizing the artist.
Across the base of the sundial, you’ll discover a plaque for every of the 88 individuals who died. Right here is the crew:
The plaques should have been individually dealt with, as a result of they aren’t all alike. Most have the sufferer’s hometown, however some give an age whereas others give a birthdate. And even the birthdates aren’t at all times in the identical format. For some cause, that non-conformity gave a extra private really feel to it.
In all probability probably the most touching characteristic of this sundial, nonetheless, is that this little heart-shaped plaque noting the date and time when the plane hit the water. Each January 31 at 4:22pm, the sundial casts a shadow over this marker.
I haven’t seen many accident memorials — although Inform Metropolis was an journey — however this one struck me as one of many extra considerate designs. If you happen to’re ever driving by way of the world, it’s price a diversion off the 101 to go and go to.
