. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded the plane wasn't sufficiently deiced before takeoff. [1] The aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B engines. Some witnesses reported a brief fire on-board as the plane crashed, although the NTSB said that none of the victims suffered burns. I can see the pilot and I want to take control. The takeoff was delayed about two hours because of the heavy snow driven by a 20-mph wind. Anthony Nasballah, Jacksonville, Fla., age unknown. He had been upgraded to captain less than three weeks earlier. My weight pushing against the seat belt made it impossible for me to open the buckle with my right hand. With his parents, Vermeulen is promoting a first anniversary memorial service at the First Presbyterian Church in Boise on Nov. 15 to remember the 28 victims. The pilot, Frank Zvonek, 43, had extensive experience in airplanes ranging from carrier-based Navy fighters to 727 widebody passenger jets, but he had only 33 hours` flight time as captain aboard the moderately sized DC-9s, and all of that had been in the warm weather months since June, Burnett said. He had 3,186 flight hours, but only 36 hours on the DC-9, which was the extent of his turbojet experience and he had not flown at all for the past 24 days. Fifty-four survived. In February 1990, Reader's Digest detailed the flight crew and some of the passengers in its article "Miracle In The Blizzard.". April 29 (UPI) -- An Australian tourist facing possible flogging after being accused of going on a drunken nude rampage in the Indonesian province of Ache says he felt "almost possessed" at the time. The NTSB said Bruecher, who had only 36 hours of flight time in a DC-9, was at the controls when the plane took off. Max Richter, 45, Boise. "My face and my arm were in the snow.". --Human error. [1] Combined with the effects of ice on the wing, the high climb rate caused the plane's left wing to stall and the plane to begin rolling over. I found that if I could disconnect and think about how Thanksgiving would be, or something in the future, that would help. But the pilot was among the dead, and an airline employe who had talked to a survivor said most passengers near the front of the plane also had died. April 28 (UPI) -- A Nebraska high school said it broke a Guinness World Record when more than 1,000 students participated in a water balloon toss event. DENVER -- Paul Vermeulen still has nightmares about last Nov. 15, and figures he probably always will. The pounding he took in the Continental Airlines crash in Denver two years ago today has erased a full month from his consciousness. Reporting on early interviews and the first examination of the wreckage, Burnett acknowledged that the first order of business will include exploring suspicions such as those expressed by Allegrezza that the crash was caused by ice buildup on the wings, a phenomenon aviators call ''leading edge accretion.''. He doesn`t know what caused his night of terror aboard Continental Airlines Flight 1713. Tom Allegrezza, 45, Meridian, Idaho, serious. But somehow it didnt.. [1] Deicing was completed at 13:46. [5] At 13:03, Flight 1713 taxied from its gate to the deicing pad; unfortunately, air traffic controllers were not aware that Flight 1713 had departed the gate because the flight crew had done so without first requesting taxi clearance. Continental said a memorial service for the victims was planned this afternoon at Denver University. The pilot, 43-year-old Frank Zvonek, was killed, as was First Officer Lee Bruecher, 26. He is critical of the efficiency-minded multidistrict litigation process, which forced federal suits to consolidate in Colorado, and bound litigants to the bellwether trial of Boisean Karen Svea Johnson. . The captain, the first officer, one flight attendant and 11 of the passengers died from blunt trauma. The left wing exploded in a ball of fire. At his first news conference, Burnett said the disaster might have been prevented had federal officials taken precautions about de-icing aircraft that the safety board recommended in 1982. So I wanted to sit in the back with my secretaries so they could take notes and type it up for me," Tom Allegrezza recalled. April 28 (UPI) -- The PGA Tour's Mexico Open was briefly interrupted when a swarm of bees sent a group of golfers ducking in the grass. The plane skidded through the freshly fallen snow for more than 1,500 feet, overturning and finally breaking into three major pieces, scattering baggage and debris in its icy wake. U.S. District Judge Sherman Finesilver held that all but a few more recently filed cases were bound by Johnson's "exemplar" judgment, and thus could not seek punitive damages. "I thought, my Lord," he said today. . Robert Linck, 60, Green Pond, N.J., fair. . . If you imagine where the plane split apart was like a shovel, it was digging into the dirt at the end of the runway," Jennifer Allegrezza said. Two more passengers died later. . There will undoubtedly be tears shed - tears of joy for the 54 who lived, tears of sorrow for the 28 who perished. In the crash I was involved in, I went in and started helping people. [11] [12] [13] Investigators also discovered that before he began working for Continental, Bruecher had been dismissed from another airline after failing on three occasions to pass a flight examination. We were skidding on our side and eating dirt, said crash survivor Libby Smoot of Ketchum, Idaho. The cold was horrible. --Fire. "I've made it through an air crash.". Flight 1713 was operated using a 21-year old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14, a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner with the registration number N626TX. [1] As the DC-9 was taking off, the pilot in control over-rotated; the DC-9 descended and the left wing struck the ground, causing the wing to separate. Vermeulen suffered four broken ribs and a punctured lung in the crash, but had recovered enough by late winter to run in the Long Beach, Calif., marathon. Frank B. Zvonek, 42, Continental pilot, Carlsbad, Calif. First Officer Lee Edward Bruecher, 26, Houston, Texas. . Before boarding the plane, he was the academic head at Nampa's Northwest Nazarene College. . Paschkov trembled as she recalled how she and another passenger lifted Melissa up through a tiny hole in a pile of seats inside the wreckage. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Crash Survivors Tell of Horrors; Toll Rises to 27 [4], At the time of the accident on Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service was reporting moderate wet snow at Stapleton International Airport. Twenty-one passengers were able to walk out of the wreckage, and were treated for shock. Planes are grounded at Stapleton when forward visibility drops to less than 1,600 feet because ''that visibility indicates heavy amounts of snow and ice in the air,'' Burnett explained. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Sept. 27 that ice on the plane's wings and relative inexperience of the two pilots were the major contributing factors of the crash. Robbie Knapp, Boise, Idaho, fair. The plane flipped on its left side and rolled over, breaking in the middle and at least one other place. Passengers, Witnesses Recall "Fireball" Crash of Continental It is not in use anywhere else. A fuel-fed flash fire ignited in the left wing shortly after it struck the ground, causing a "fireball" inside the cabin. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. 'After you've been through one (crash), you sometimes think you're all alone with your feelings. [1], Flight 1713 was cleared for takeoff at 14:14. I remember thinking, Im going to die 3/8 This is it 3/8 and then I wondered what its going to feel like, Helpenstell said of the moments before the crash. BOISE, Idaho It was 34 years ago that Continental Flight 1713 en route to Boise crashed on the runway of Denver's old Stapleton Airport. DENVER For two hours after the crash of Flight 1713, Dr. Tom Allegrezza sat upside down, strapped into his seat, while jet kerosene fuel dripped down on his clothing and soaked the blanket firefighters had provided to keep him warm during their rescue effort. And the plane had split apart. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Wildfires in Anchorage? There were five crew members and 77 passengers aboard, most from Idaho. Neither Bruecher nor Zvonek had checked the wings for ice before taking off, the board said. --Mechanical failure. Nine months after the crash of Flight 1713, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashed in Dallas. David Daniel, 45, Idaho, improved over serious. . [1] Having already completed deicing, Flight 1713's crew seem to have interpreted this new clearance to mean they could now taxi from the pad and proceed to the runway. BOISE, Idaho It was 34 years ago that Continental Flight 1713 en route to Boise crashed on the runway of Denver's old Stapleton Airport. After an eerie, stunned silence, the screams began. Fred H. Helpenstell, a physician from Nampa, Idaho, was trapped in the fuselage for two hours. [14] [15] Investigators likewise determined that First Officer Bruecher was at the controls at the time of the accident. Dominicana DC-9 air disaster The nightmares, which sometimes repeat themselves twice in a night, never change. Continental Airlines flight 1713
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