Eighteen-year-old Donovan Thater, who had been working at the airline for only three weeks, was killed at the Seattle Tacoma Airport when he was pinned against a plane by a baggage tug he had been using to deliver last minute bags to a departing flight.

A number of baggage handlers here expressed the view that this death could have been avoided. Many of the newer, younger workers thought that Thater was trying to stop the tug from hitting the plane when he was killed.

One explained that a probationary worker is automatically fired if he or she damages an airplane. He added, "It's drummed into you that the worst thing of all is to hit a plane. Not only is the damage costly but then the cancellations cost tens of thousands."

Another worker said that the company should have carriers on the tugs to bring out the last minute bags.

Since Alaska's tugs don't have them, the ramp workers have to put the bags on the hood of the vehicle or on the seat next to the driver. Many of the ramp workers here believe that Thater probably had a bag on the seat next to him when he drove up to the plane. A bag will often slide off the seat and this can disengage the emergency brake. Still another worker said that since last minute bag delivery has to be done in a hurry and therefore can be unsafe the practice should be stopped altogether.

The bosses at Alaska have commented very little on the cause of Thater's death except to deflect any blame from themselves, thus putting it totally on Thater. In contrast to their callousness, two bouquets of flowers were delivered to the baggage handlers break room offering sympathy for the loss of a fellow worker. One bouquet was from flight attendants and the other was signed by dozens of customer service representatives.

At the same time that Donovan Thater was killed, more information has come to light concerning the maintenance record of the MD-83 aircraft used by Alaska Flight 261, which crashed off the coast of California January 31, killing all 88 people on board. Alaska had been under investigation even before the crash since a mechanic had exposed safety problems at the carrier well before this.

It is widely accepted that the cause of Flight 261's crash was the failure of the jackscrew assembly that moves the horizontal stabilizers which in turn control the up and down motion of the aircraft.

The jackscrew assembly found at the crash site lacked grease needed for its operation and the gimbal nut had come off leaving its threads wrapped around the jackscrew. The pilots of Flight 261 reported problems with the stabilizer just before the crash.

The May 21 Seattle Times states that the jackscrew assembly in question was cleared by the airline from close monitoring in September 1997 by only one thousandth of an inch. This "microscopic margin" was discovered a day after mechanics, in their initial check, had decided that the jackscrew needed to be replaced.

The written order to replace the jackscrew was scratched out and instead mechanics were told to retest the part. Criminal investigators are looking into whether the several tests conducted after the first were manipulated so that the plane would be cleared. Federal officials noted that the plane was scheduled for flight soon after the maintenance check and that no replacement jackscrews were available.

Alaska employers had John Young, a 10-year mechanic at Alaska Airlines in Seattle, kicked off their maintenance area May 26 and suspended from work for having spoken out publicly about safety at the airline. A few days before Young was interviewed on television and quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying, "I know planes have gone out in unsafe condition."

More than one mechanic has expressed the view that the attack on Young is an attempt to intimidate him and other Alaska workers who may want to speak out about safety problems at the company.

Even though it poses great risks to their jobs, a number of mechanics have spoken of the safety problems at Alaska. John Liotine, a mechanic from Alaska's Oakland maintenance base, was suspended months ago.

Liotine's allegations in 1998 of falsified maintenance records led to recommendations from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the licenses of three supervisors to work on Alaska planes in Oakland be suspended.

In March, 64 Alaska mechanics in Seattle signed a letter addressed to the company complaining of a manager's pressure on them to cut corners on their work.

Mildred Thater, Donovan Thater's aunt and a reservations agent at United Airlines in Seattle, told the Seattle Times, "They've been showing disregard for human safety lately. It's been costing lives."

Concerning the death of her nephew, she went on to say that Alaska officials claim that "they were trying to piece the story together, which I think is a bunch of crap. They knew why it happened. They're just not telling us."  
 
 
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