Alaska Airlines Flight 261
E112401
airliner accident involving controlled flight into water
aviation accident
commercial passenger flight
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled passenger flight that tragically crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2000 after a catastrophic mechanical failure, killing all 88 people on board and prompting major safety investigations and reforms.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines Flight 261 canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T947951 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Context triple: [Alaska Airlines, notableIncident, Alaska Airlines Flight 261]
-
A.
US Airways Flight 1549
US Airways Flight 1549 was the 2009 passenger flight that famously ditched in the Hudson River after a bird strike disabled both engines, with all 155 people on board surviving.
-
B.
United Airlines Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was a hijacked passenger flight during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.
-
C.
Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590 was the Concorde supersonic passenger jet that crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris in 2000, killing all on board and effectively leading to the end of Concorde’s commercial service.
-
D.
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447 was a 2009 transatlantic passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board and prompting major changes in aviation safety and pilot training.
-
E.
American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11 was the hijacked Boeing 767 that was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Target entity description: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled passenger flight that tragically crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2000 after a catastrophic mechanical failure, killing all 88 people on board and prompting major safety investigations and reforms.
-
A.
US Airways Flight 1549
US Airways Flight 1549 was the 2009 passenger flight that famously ditched in the Hudson River after a bird strike disabled both engines, with all 155 people on board surviving.
-
B.
United Airlines Flight 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was a hijacked passenger flight during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers.
-
C.
Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590 was the Concorde supersonic passenger jet that crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris in 2000, killing all on board and effectively leading to the end of Concorde’s commercial service.
-
D.
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447 was a 2009 transatlantic passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board and prompting major changes in aviation safety and pilot training.
-
E.
American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11 was the hijacked Boeing 767 that was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
airliner accident involving controlled flight into water
ⓘ
aviation accident ⓘ commercial passenger flight ⓘ |
| aircraftFamily |
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
ⓘ
surface form:
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series
|
| aircraftManufacturer | McDonnell Douglas ⓘ |
| aircraftModel |
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
ⓘ
surface form:
MD-83
|
| aircraftRegistration | N963AS ⓘ |
| aircraftType |
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
ⓘ
surface form:
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
|
| airline | Alaska Airlines ⓘ |
| cause |
jackscrew failure in horizontal stabilizer trim system
ⓘ
loss of pitch control ⓘ |
| contributingFactor |
inadequate oversight of maintenance practices
ⓘ
maintenance deficiencies ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| countryOfOperator |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| crew | 5 ⓘ |
| date | 2000-01-31 ⓘ |
| departureDate | 2000-01-31 ⓘ |
| destinationCity | Seattle ⓘ |
| destinationCountry |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| fatalities | 88 ⓘ |
| finalDestination | Seattle–Tacoma International Airport ⓘ |
| flightNumber | 261 ⓘ |
| flightPath | Puerto Vallarta–San Francisco–Seattle ⓘ |
| impactType | ocean impact ⓘ |
| investigatedBy | National Transportation Safety Board ⓘ |
| location | Pacific Ocean ⓘ |
| locationDetail | off the coast of California ⓘ |
| nearestCity |
Port Hueneme
ⓘ
surface form:
Port Hueneme, California
|
| notableFeature |
led to changes in FAA oversight of airline maintenance programs
ⓘ
prompted major maintenance and inspection reforms for MD-80 series stabilizer systems ⓘ widely cited case of catastrophic stabilizer trim failure ⓘ |
| NTSBReportNumber | AAR-02-01 ⓘ |
| occupants | 88 ⓘ |
| operatorIATACode | AS ⓘ |
| operatorICAOCode | ASA ⓘ |
| origin | Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport ⓘ |
| originCity | Puerto Vallarta ⓘ |
| originCountry | Mexico ⓘ |
| passengers | 83 ⓘ |
| phaseOfFlight | cruise ⓘ |
| safetyOutcome | triggered revisions to MD-80 horizontal stabilizer maintenance intervals ⓘ |
| stopover | San Francisco International Airport ⓘ |
| stopoverCity | San Francisco ⓘ |
| survivors | 0 ⓘ |
| timeOfAccidentLocal | about 16:22 PST ⓘ |
| underlyingCause |
excessive wear of acme nut threads
ⓘ
inadequate lubrication of jackscrew assembly ⓘ |
| year | 2000 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Description of subject: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was a scheduled passenger flight that tragically crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2000 after a catastrophic mechanical failure, killing all 88 people on board and prompting major safety investigations and reforms.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.