Alaska Airlines' maintenance records were under investigation

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1 (AFP) - Federal investigators have spent more than a year looking into whether Alaska Airlines falsified maintenance records on jets similar to the one that crashed off the coast of southern California Monday.

Alaska Airlines has been the target of a criminal probe since October 1998, when a mechanic at the airline's Oakland, California maintenance facility told a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that a maintenance checklist for an MD-80 had been improperly filled out.

The Seattle, Washington-based carrier relies heavily on the MD-80 series aircraft to carry the bulk of its passengers on routes between 40 west coast cities, stretching from Mexico to Canada and Alaska. The airline's 39 MD-80s are maintained and repaired in Oakland, near San Francisco.

John Liotines complaint to the FAA prompted an investigation that has grown to involve a San Francisco federal grand jury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the federal justice and transportation departments.

In 1997, the FAA had fined the company 40,000 dollars for not repairing a fuel-tank leak in an MD-80, which is manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing.

Alaska Airlines, which operates about 500 flights daily and carries roughly 13 million passengers a year, is appealing that decision.

The criminal investigation is still under way, and the grand jury proceedings remain confidential. Meanwhile, FAA officials have recommended that the mechanic licenses of three Alaska Airlines supervisors in Oakland be revoked on the grounds they made false entries on maintenance records.

The FAA has also asked for a 44,000-dollar fine against Alaska Airlines. An original FAA proposal for an 8.7-million-dollar fine was withdrawn after FAA lawyers concluded the airlines' executives werent involved in the alleged wrongdoing.

Federal documents released earlier in the investigation revealed that Liotine complained that an Alaska Airlines supervisor filled out a post-maintenance checklist on an MD-80, although he was not qualified to do so.

An FAA inspector in Oakland went on to determine that the two MD-80 jets were in "unairworthy condition" during 844 flights between October 7, 1998, and January 19, 1999 because portions of records that document maintenance were incomplete.

FAA inspectors reported finding that a supervisor had released one of the jets back into service despite a throttle being set improperly.

Alaska officials have countered that the alleged violations were only record-keeping mistakes and that the jets were safe in the air.

The airline has had only three fatal crashes in its 68-year history. During a public statement Tuesday, Alaska chairman John Kelly said the jet that crashed had never been the subject of the investigation.

Liotine was put on paid leave in September because of the investigation and "strains on the existing operation," according to Alaska.

Members of the mechanics union also recalled Liotine from his post as local chapter president last year. A letter from a union committee cites Liotines involvement in the criminal investigation as the impetus for the recall.

The MD-80 also has been the source of scores of complaints about air quality in the cabin. Hundreds of Alaska flight attendants have gone on record blaming headaches, goiters, tremors and lost mental abilities, and other woes on what they believe are fumes inhaled while working on MD-80s.

Some flight attendants have filed a civil suit against Alaska because of sicknesses they maintain were caused by the supposed fumes.

Federal and company investigations have yet to figure out what is causing the illnesses.

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