Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled international passenger flight on January 31, 2000 from
Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport in
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in
Seattle, Washington, with an intermediate stop at
San Francisco International Airport in
San Francisco, California. The aircraft, a
McDonnell Douglas MD-83, crashed into the
Pacific Ocean about north of
Anacapa Island,
California after suffering a catastrophic loss of
pitch control. The crash killed everyone aboard: two pilots, three cabin crewmembers, and 83passengers, and occurred three weeks after the crash of
Crossair Flight 498 in Switzerland and one day after the crash of
Kenya Airways Flight 431 off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire.