Alaska Airlines

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday proposed a fine of nearly $1-million against Alaska Airlines for sloppy maintenance and for flying planes with inoperative equipment that had not been properly repaired. Part of the fine is sought for flying one plane that had problems with an important navigational instrument and for flying another on hundreds of flights without a flight data recorder, which is a critical aid to air crash investigators.

Alaska Airlines completed all 17 inspections of MD-80 aircraft midday Friday, the day after announcing that a tool used to measure stresses on the jets' tail sections may have given the wrong readings. Alaska spokesman Jack Evans said measurements did not show any additional wear and tear and the planes were back in service. Alaska said the tool, which the airline makes, could measure stresses on jackscrews in the MD-80s' horizontal stabilizers incorrectly.

Fees are rising, service can be lousy and … airline passengers are happier? Yes, according to a customer satisfaction survey released Tuesday. Research company J.D. Power & Associates asked more than 12,300 passengers who flew between April 2009 and April this year to rate North American airlines on costs and fees, flight crew, in-flight services, aircraft, boarding/deplaning/baggage, check-in and reservations. Compared with last year's survey, "performance improved across the board," said Stuart Greif, vice president and general manager of the global travel and hospitality practice at J.D. Power, based in Westlake Village.

After the recent Alaska Airlines crash, airlines quickly embraced a federal order to inspect a suspect part on hundreds of jetliners, saying that the reviews should ease any concern among the flying public. But nine months earlier, when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to inspect another part of the same stabilizer mechanism on MD-80s, the response was much less enthusiastic.

As recovery efforts continued Sunday at the site of the Alaska Airlines crash off the Ventura County coast, federal investigators retrieved the flight data recorder from an Alaska jet that was forced to return to Reno on Saturday evening when the pilot reported problems with the motors on the plane's horizontal stabilizer.

The Boeing Co. and Alaska Airlines won't contest their liability in the crash three years ago of Alaska's Flight 261 off Point Mugu under an agreement approved Tuesday, clearing the way for the resolution of outstanding claims and protecting the firms from further scrutiny by families of the victims.

Alaska Airlines is proving that in the post-Sept. 11 airline industry, it helps to have some northern exposure. Although most carriers have made massive cuts to weather the plunge in air travel, Alaska has made only moderate trims in service because demand for its flights is holding up fairly well. With its routes concentrated in the Northwest and West Coast, the airline expects to be back to full strength next month and will even expand a bit later this year.

The number of U.S. jets discovered to have possible tail wing anomalies climbed to 19 Saturday afternoon, two weeks since the mechanism first came under scrutiny in the wake of the Alaska Airlines crash off Anacapa Island. Investigators have not determined whether damage to the horizontal stabilizer assembly found in the wreckage caused the crash or was a result of the crash's impact. Pilots had reported trouble with the stabilizer before the crash.

Of all the words uttered in all the memorials for the 88 victims of the Alaska Airlines crash, perhaps none was more eloquent or heartfelt than the simple statement of Indar Deo, whose 23-year-old son Avine Deo died in the disaster Monday. "He was my grown son," Deo said Saturday at a Hindu memorial service at the Hueneme Pier. "He was such a nice boy."

During the past 15 months, the Alaska Airlines facility where heavy maintenance was performed on all of the airline's MD-80s has been targeted by two federal investigations into accusations that mechanics falsified safety inspection records and allowed two airplanes to fly in "unairworthy" condition. The facility, at Oakland International Airport, has also been shaken by labor turmoil that climaxed with the ouster of the local mechanics union president after he became a federal whistle-blower.