PORT HUENEME, Calif. (AP) The cockpit voice recorder recovered from the Pacific details the Alaska Air crew desperately trying to regain control as the jet carrying 88 people flew upside down before crashing, federal investigators said today. They also said they found the second black box. The cockpit recorder captured more than 30 minutes of conversation, NTSB Chairman James Hall told reporters.

"The crew made references to being inverted that are consistent with the witness statements to that effect," Hall said. The tape starts with the crew discussing a problem with a tail part called the horizontal stabilizer, which keeps the plane level. The crew then decided to divert to Los Angeles International Airport, but the problem became worse. The crew then struggled to pull out of a nosedive, regaining some control while continuing to troubleshoot and prepare for landing.

"Then control was suddenly lost," Hall said. Hall's account came from an initial review of the cockpit voice recorder, which was recovered Wednesday from debris of the MD-83.

Remote operated vehicles searching the ocean floor today found the flight data recorder, the companion box that has details of the plane's mechanical operation, said John Hammerschmidt, a member of the NTSB.Its discovery came hours after searchers recovered the pinger for the recorder, which was no longer attached to the device. Around midday the recorder was being brought to the ocean's surface.

The NTSB has also begun analyzing a recording of a radio call from Flight 261's pilots to a Seattle maintenance crew about the stabilizer problem minutes before the crash.

Investigators said witnesses saw no signs of fire or smoke when the jet hit the water in one piece Monday, killing everyone on board during the planned flight from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and Seattle.

As the plane passed over Anacapa Island, just off the Calilifornia coast, a witness heard several popping sounds and watched the jet turn and hit the water, Hammerschmidt said Wednesday.

``The aircraft was twisting, flying erratically, nose rocking,'' he told reporters late Wednesday. He also said other pilots nearby described the plane as ``tumbling, spinning, nose-down, continuous roll, corkscrewing and inverted.''

Ships with side-scan sonar equipment that can make detailed maps of debris on the ocean floor began searching the crash site today.

The wreckage is well below the 300-foot safety limit for divers -- and most of the bodies are believed pinned in the debris on the bottom of the ocean. Searchers have recovered the remains of only four passengers.

Investigators expected choppier waters as a light storm moved toward Southern California today. The beaches were mostly clear of debris, but rough seas could begin to wash ashore more remnants of the craft.

The search for survivors was called off Wednesday over the protest of some family members who held out hope that someone might still be alive in the chilly waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. The search had gone on for 41 hours and included dozens of Coast Guard, Navy and civilian ships, boats and aircraft that combed a 1,100-square-mile area.

Three buses carrying 100 relatives of crash victims left Los Angeles with a police escort for a private memorial today at Point Mugu. They carried red and white bouquets of baby's breath and carnations along with white carton boxes that contained a lunch, suntan lotion, tissue, pen and paper.

``The purpose of (the pen and paper) is to allow them to ... either keep a journal, write a note and leave it or maybe communicate their feelings to one another,'' said Barbara Jean, a worker with the Red Cross, which helped organize the trip.

On Wednesday, a jammed horizontal stabilizer forced an American Airlines MD-80 to return to Phoenix 20 minutes after it took off for Dallas on Wednesday. The plane is part of the same series of aircraft as the Alaska MD-83 that crashed.

On Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported the plane that crashed this week had horizontal stabilizer problems on its trip to Puerto Vallarta, its next-to-the-last flight.

Hall said today he did not think such reports were ``exactly correct. ... What we are doing this morning in California, we will be interviewing the crew of the previous flight."

Airline spokesman Jack Evans in Seattle also denied the report: "We stand by what we said earlier this week, which is that we're not aware of any maintenance anomalies with this aircraft."
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