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Morning News

Alaska Airlines Flight 261: Coast Guard, Navy Ships Search for Survivors Overnight; Friends, Classmates Remember Four Young Victims

Aired February 2, 2000 - 10:07 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Friends and relatives are keeping a sad vigil for the victims of Alaska Airlines Flight 261. Coast Guard and Navy ships searched the crash site overnight but they found no survivors, only debris.

We have more now on the search and the crash investigation from CNN's Greg LaMotte in Oxnard, California.

Greg, good morning.

GREG LAMOTTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

As we understand it, the Coast Guard plans to hold a news conference in about two hours from now. We expect that it will be announced that the focus of the operation will be changing from search-and-rescue to wreckage recovery. The MD-80 went down in the Pacific Monday afternoon. No survivors have been found.

As we begin to see daybreak here in Southern California, and Coast Guard assets and Navy assets gear up to resume their operation, we have been told that a vessel from San Diego is en route to the crash site. That vessel is equipped with side-scanning sonar that will be used to help locate the plane's flight data recorder, or "black box," of which there are two. Pinging has been detected and that Navy vessel could be in place and searching for the "black box" as early as this afternoon.

It's -- the "black box" is located -- both of them, there are two -- believed to be in about 700 feet of water. It's deep, but the Navy has experience in retrieving undersea items thousands of feet deep.

Coast Guard has expanded the security zone around the crash site from eight to 22 miles. That's the secure area where the Coast Guard and the Navy are working. Private boats have also been working in the area, and they have been helpful in wreckage retrieval. It's also been revealed that the pilots of the plane struggled for some 11 minutes, dealing with what they called a jammed stabilizer before the plane disappeared from radar 11 minutes after they made contact with mechanics in Seattle.

Greg LaMotte, CNN, live, Oxnard, California.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Greg. Four of the youngest victims on board Flight 261 had something else in common.

From Seattle, here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a close-knit neighborhood in the city of Seattle, 470 kindergarten through 5th graders go to the John Hay Elementary School. On a bulletin board outside one of the first grade classes, 6-year-old Rachel Pearson wrote about her dream for the new millenniums, hoping that it would snow everyday, "then we can make snowmen and play with friends outside everyday. That would be fun."

Rachel Pearson was one of the passengers who went down with Alaska Airlines Flight 261. She was flying with her parents and her baby sister.

JOSEPH OLCHEFSKE, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: It's a real horrible thing that we're all going through.

TUCHMAN: Joseph Olchefske is the school superintendent who is dealing with the additional fact that three other children from the school were also on the plane. Cori, Miles and Blake Clemetson were traveling with their parents and baby sister.

OLCHEFSKE: To have four children in this school, and a school that I know well, that my own daughter attends is very painful.

TUCHMAN: Outside Corey Clemetson's second grade class, a chart shows her as a consistent star reader. Inside her class, her name tag sits on her desk, a desk full of art projects dedicated to her from her saddened and confused classmates. Carol Briant's daughter is friends with all four of the children.

CAROL BRIANT, STUDENT'S MOTHER: They can't really understand wholly, and it comes to them in bits, in little bubbles. My daughter wondered who was going to feed the dog.

TUCHMAN: Therapists are now spending time with the students. The art projects, notes and discussions are all part of the therapy. The school's principal refuses to speak in the past tense.

JOANNE TESTACROSS, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: I've watched them in the soccer field, in the classroom. They're just very loved and very delightful.

TUCHMAN (on camera): The psychologists and counselors are scheduled to be here for the next two weeks, but school administers feel it's likely they'll have to be called back for some children in the weeks and months to come.

(voice-over): For the children, parents and staff of John Hay Elementary School, the new millennium has been tragically disrupted.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Seattle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Tough, tough stuff.

KAGAN: Those pictures break your heart.

HEMMER: Oh yes.

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