Culprit was determined to be the airline's [deliberate] failure to maintain proper routine maintenance for greasing the horizontal stabilizer's trim-system jackscrew assembly's trapezoidal nut threads, and also falsifying their maintenance records.
Perhaps that was just the cover story to distract attention from the deadly chemtrail residue, but I doubt it.
Normal winds buffeting the SoCal & Mexico coast would likely have dissipated any chemtrails.
No other flight along that heavily traveled north-south route [before or after 1/31/2000] suffered the same fate.
gisd O
https://www.airlineroutemaps.com/directory/USA
A lot of planes cover the same routes when the fly and leave a lot of con-trails in the same general space. Multiple planes, of course, not a single plane.
Here is something on Cloud seeding in North Dakota.
https://www.kfyrtv.com/2022/07/08/cloud-seeding-efforts-underway-north-southwest-north-dakota/
https://www.swc.nd.gov/arb/ndcmp/
With regard to buffeting dispersal, as one has seen visually, such trails tend to be more persistent, which would be according to optimal plan effectiveness in seeding the atmosphere.
After that particular crash, a different jackscrew grease was used. That there was only one such crash is a testament to government and Alaska Airlines talent to making necessary changes without getting into a nonproductive, heated row between the parties, as the government could easily see to Alaska Airlines being driven out of existence. Alaska Airlines were given multiple carrots to assuage their existential concerns. In kind, they were willing to see--sufficiently--the gubmint's POV.
Reliance on a paradigm of "no other...before or after" argument proves nothing. If there was ever to be such an accident, one flight would always necessarily be first. The MD-83 configuration was relevant. That particular Flt#261 happened to be in the relevant paths and altitudes that brought its problem to a head before others that traversed the area. Thereafter, as I said, the problem was fixed.