On a windy February morning in 1991, a Boeing 737 dove out of the sky and crashed into a Colorado Springs park, killing all 25 people aboard.
That crash, and the investigation that followed, alerted Seattle Times reporter Byron Acohido to a larger story that needed to be told. Crash investigators were finding what seemed to be a recurring problem with the rudder-control system on Boeing 737s.
Three years later, when USAir Flight 427 crashed and exploded into flames near Pittsburgh, investigators again pointed to 737 rudder problems, and Acohido began a two-year reporting project that would earn him a Pulitzer Prize.
Acohido, who has covered the aerospace industry for the Seattle Times since 1988, won the Pulitzer for beat reporting for his five-part series called "Safety at Issue."
The series, published in October 1996, details the potentially fatal problems with rudder-control systems on the world's most popular aircraft.
Spotting the story
Acohido had kept his eye on the rudder problems since the Colorado Springs crash and was aware of more than a dozen foreign crashes similar to the 1991 incident. The Pittsburgh crash brought the problem closer to home.
Immediately after that Sept. 8, 1994, crash, Acohido searched the FAA's Service Difficulty Reports database and found nearly 100 reports of serious problems with 737 rudders.
After he wrote the story about those reports, a source suggested Acohido would find further information in a NASA aviation database. That database provided details of a Continental Airlines pilot's similar experience with rudder problems near Honduras in 1994.
From there, Acohido says most of his reporting came from interviews and thousands of pages of documents, including National Transportation Safety Board records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, FAA documents, Boeing service bulletins and court records.
Other computer assistance came from the graphics department. Acohido said working with the graphics coordinator Karen Kerchelich and news artist James McFarlane to provide detailed graphics for the series helped him focus.
Three perspectives gave him three new sets of questions to answer each time they met. And having to describe in detail each mechanical aircraft part to his editors in turn helped clarify Acohido's writing.
"That helped me forward," Acohido says, admitting the process was tedious at times. "The more I found out, the more I found out I didn't know."
Pulling it together
In spring 1996, after having done 20 to 30 breaking stories over the two years, he began writing the series. It would take six drafts and more than 500 inches of material before he had finished.
Two more incidents gave Acohido the momentum to finish the project: the crash of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's 737 in April 1996 and the near-crash of an Eastwind Airlines 737 in June 1996.
It wasn't just the Pulitzer that made the series a success. The FAA has since mandated changes to the 737 rudder-control systems.
"I know for sure we did meet our goal of providing readers with clarity about an issue that meant something to them," Acohido said. "I know we helped raise the level of awareness to the pilot community. I know that for a fact."
He heightened his own awareness so much that Acohido avoids flying on 737s whenever possible.
"I don't like flying on them because I know too much about them. The same risk is out there. It's there now, and it will be there for two to three more years until they put the fix they are working on on the airplanes."
His best tip for a Pulitzer-winning project?
"Don't try to do it in one giant piece," Acohido advises. "Get whatever you can in print. It will help your understanding. It will break out new insights and new sources."