Alaska Airlines Flight 261 - Aftermath

Aftermath

After the crash occurred, Alaska Airlines management said that it hoped to handle the aftermath in a manner similar to that done by Swissair after the Swissair Flight 111 accident, as opposed to the manner that TWA handled the aftermath of TWA Flight 800; in other words, to provide timely information and compassion to the families of victims.

The families of the victims approved the construction of a memorial sundial that was placed at Port Hueneme. The sundial was designed by Santa Barbara artist Bud Bottoms to cast a shadow on a memorial plaque at 4:22 p.m. each January 31.

For their actions during the emergency, Captain Ted Thompson and First Officer Bill Tansky were awarded the Airline Pilots Association Gold Medal for Heroism, the only time the award has been given posthumously.

Both Boeing and Alaska Airlines eventually conceded liability for the crash, and all but one of the lawsuits brought by surviving family members were settled out-of-court before going to trial. Candy Hatcher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said "Many lost faith in Alaska Airlines, a homegrown company that had taken pride in its safety record and billed itself as a family airline."

Two victims from Alaska 261 were falsely named in paternity suits as the fathers of children in Guatemala in an attempt to gain insurance and settlement money. DNA testing revealed these claims to be false.

The Ted Thompson/Bill Tansky Scholarship Fund was named after the two cockpit flight crew members.

Many residents of the City of Seattle had been affected by the disaster. As part of a memorial vigil in the year 2000, a column of light was beamed from the top of the Space Needle. Students and faculty at the John Hay Elementary School in Queen Anne, Seattle held a memorial for four Hay students who died in the crash. In April, 2001, John Hay Elementary dedicated the "John Hay Pathway Garden" which stands as a permanent living memorial to these students and their families. The City of Seattle public park Soundview Terrace was renovated in honor of the 4 Pearson and the 6 Clemetson family members, all Flight 261 victims from the same Seattle neighborhood of Queen Anne. The park's playground was named "Rachel's Playground" in honor of 6 year old Rachel Pearson who lived nearby and often played at the park.

The Alaska Airlines flight 261 crash has appeared in various advance fee fraud ("419") email scams. In these scams, a scammer uses the name of someone who died in the crash to lure unsuspecting victims into sending money to the scammer by claiming the crash victim left huge amounts of unclaimed money in a foreign bank account. The names of Morris Thompson and Ronald and Joyce Lake were used in schemes unrelated to them.

As of November 2011, Flight 261 no longer exists. The flight route designation for this route is now Flight 221. Alaska Airlines continues to operate the Puerto Vallarta-San Francisco-Seattle/Tacoma route; the airline also operates the Puerto Vallarta-Seattle/Tacoma route nonstop as Flight 203. The airline also retired all of its MD-80s in 2008 and now operates all Boeing 737 aircraft.