Alaska Airlines
 

I was reading the accident report and CVR on flt 261 which crashed in 2000.Am I to understand that the stabilizer went fully down putting the aircraft in a nose down position.Also the FO was reluctant to try trouble shooting and when the Captain did the situation got worse.Could they have got it down without disconnecting autopilot?Forgive me if I have some facts mixed up,just trying to make sense of the sequence.
Any comments appreciated.
regards

If it is the incident I am thinking of it was a mechanical failure and the crew were helpless, regardless.

The situation would've gotten worse regardless.
 

The biggest mistake the crew made was to fly past three suitable airports while troubleshooting.

If you go back and re-read the transcript you'll find a short conversation about their concern for the overflights.

The jackscrew failure probably would've occurred sooner or later with or without troubleshooting. The very first concern should have been to get the airplane on the ground as soon as possible with any type of flight control problem.

I think the autopilot would've disconnected by itself when the final failure occurred because the stabilizer exceeded all limitations when the nut stripped off the jackscrew. The airplane was uncontrollable at that point.

I hope that clears it up.