=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/08/12/n= ational0646EDT0496.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, August 12, 2003 (AP) Federal prosecutors rule out criminal charges in Alaska Airlines crash probe (08-12) 03:46 PDT SEATTLE (AP) -- Alaska Airlines will not face criminal charges over the crash of Flight 261 three years ago that killed all 88 people aboard, federal investigators have decided. The decision was revealed Monday in a quarterly filing by corporate pare= nt Alaska Air Group Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission. An aide to assistant U.S. attorney Matt Jacobs confirmed the decision to The Seattle Times but would not elaborate. Company officials would not comment Monday to the Times or The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The filing stated that the U.S. attorney's office last month concluded that "the evidence does not warrant the filing of criminal charges and it has closed its investigation." The Alaska Airlines MD-83 crashed in the Pacific Ocean off Port Hueneme, Calif., on Jan. 31, 2000, on a flight from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle. The National Transportation Safety Board in December blamed shoddy maintenance for the failure of the plane's jackscrew, a tail component that helps move the jet's stabilizer and sets the angle of flight. All but one of the 88 wrongful death lawsuits filed by crash victims have been settled. Alaska Air conceded legal liability for the crash and Boeing Co., which merged with the plane's manufacturer McDonnell Douglas in 1997, agreed not to contest liability. The remaining lawsuit, in which only the amount of damages remains at issue, is pending in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. On the Net: www.alaskasworld.com =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP