SEATTLE (AP) _ An Alaska Airlines MD-80 was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing Thursday morning after the pilot reported problems with the plane"s stabilizers. Alaska Flight 288 took off at 8:02 a.m. from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, heading for Los Angeles with 51 people on board. Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported a problem with the plane"s "trim," airport spokesman Bob Parker said. The plane made a successful landing at Sea-Tac shortly before 9 a.m. There were no injuries reported, Parker said. The trim _ the up-or-down angle of an aircraft"s nose _ is adjusted by control surfaces on the horizontal stabilizer and vertical fin on the aircraft"s tail. A failure in the gear that adjusts the horizontal stabilizer has been implicated in the Jan. 31 crash of an Alaska MD-80 off the California coast, which killed 88 people. On Aug. 3, Alaska pulled 17 of its MD-80 aircraft out of service to check the horizontal stabilizer mechanisms after it was discovered that an Alaska-made tool that measures stress on the stabilizers" jackscrew could give inaccurate readings if improperly used. No problems were found and the planes were returned to service. Alaska spokesman Jack Evans did not know whether the MD-80 that made the emergency landing Thursday was one of those inspected last week, but said that the problem was unrelated to the inspections. The fault was in the plane stabilizer"s motor, which turns the jackscrew, Evans said. Failure of the motor would freeze the stabilizer in place.

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-- Doris (reaper1@mindspring.com), August 10, 2000