Alaska's repairs executive resigns

The man in charge of Alaska Airlines' maintenance operations has resigned, saying "a change needs to occur in order for this great company to turn the corner and move forward."

John Fowler, 52, executive vice president for technical operations and systems control, announced his early retirement yesterday.

Alaska's maintenance operations have been under scrutiny by federal investigators for nearly two years, a probe that intensified following the Jan. 31 crash of Alaska Flight 261.

Fowler, Alaska's third-ranking executive, wrote in a letter posted on a Web site for Alaska employees that the past five months have been difficult for all of them. After spending a lot of time reflecting on the turmoil, he said, he decided his resignation would help the situation.

"Alaska really is a great company, and I'd like to think that in some ways I contributed," he said.

Fowler, who joined Alaska in 1991, was not asked to retire, company spokesman Jack Evans said.

"This is his own decision," Evans said, adding that the company didn't plan to elaborate on Fowler's letter. Alaska hasn't chosen a replacement, he said.

Fowler said he has agreed to the company's request that he help with the transition to a successor and with the airline's dealings with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA is considering whether to shut down the airline's heavy-maintenance operations because of paperwork problems. The airline's maintenance practices also are the subject of a criminal investigation by a federal grand jury in San Francisco.

Alaska has submitted a detailed list of new maintenance procedures to the FAA, aimed at avoiding a shutdown of its repair facilities in Seattle and Oakland.

Fowler also said he would continue to assist the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation into the cause of the Flight 261 crash.

Fowler's leadership has been questioned for some time by the airline's mechanics and pilots, some of whom have blamed him for the carrier's woes.

He was stripped in April of his oversight of Alaska's 1,300 pilots after he emerged as a lightning rod for pilots angered by directives they perceived as violating work rules. Those duties were handed to a new vice president of flight operations, Kevin Finan.

After Fowler's announcement, Tara Elkins, spokeswoman for the Air Line Pilots Association in Seattle, said, "We hope it's a positive change, and we hope it's the best change for the company now."

Fowler reports to Bill Ayer, the airline's president. He was originally hired as the carrier's vice president of maintenance, a post he held in his previous job at Pan American World Airways. He was named senior vice president of technical operations at Alaska in 1997 and was promoted to his current position a year later.

Throughout his tenure, he played a central role in overseeing and developing Alaska's maintenance procedures as the airline restructured itself into what it described as a low-cost, high-quality carrier.

The airline's practices became the subject of the grand-jury probe in late 1998, after a senior Alaska mechanic in Oakland, John Liotine, went to the FAA with allegations that company managers were signing off on work that wasn't done or that they didn't have authority to approve.

The FAA has proposed a $44,000 fine against Alaska stemming from the allegations, and the revocation of the mechanic's licenses of three Alaska managers. The airline and the manager have appealed; final resolution is pending.

In an audit prompted by the Flight 261 crash, the FAA later found systematic problems with Alaska's ability to document maintenance work and follow federally prescribed procedures. The agency said it found no need to ground any planes.

FAA officials threatened June 2 to strip the airline of its authority to perform heavy-maintenance work unless it makes acceptable changes. Officials are reviewing Alaska's plan and are expected to announce their decision within weeks.

The grand-jury investigation expanded to include the Flight 261 crash when questions arose about a 1997 inspection of the plane's jackscrew assembly, a key part in the horizontal stabilizer, which controls the aircraft's up and down movements.

Although a lead mechanic had recommended that the jackscrew assembly be replaced, he was overruled by mechanics and a supervisor on a later shift. Federal agents are trying to determine precisely what happened.

Flight 261's pilots reported problems with the stabilizer shortly before the MD-83 plunged into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.

Seattle Times aerospace reporter Chuck Taylor contributed to this report.