DENVER—The Continental Airlines 737 jet that departed a DIA runway Saturday night traveled nearly a half mile through fields, then up and over a taxiway and access road like a 4-wheeling Jeep before coming to rest on its belly a short distance from an airport fire station, a site visit for news media revealed today.
The National Transportation Safety Board took a pool of reporters and photographers to the crash scene for a 20-minute visit shortly after noon Monday.
The tracks made by the plane’s wheels were clearly visible where they veered off runway 34Right and traveled over a field, crossed taxiway WC, then dropped down a steep embankment and traveled through a depressed area before bouncing over Kewaunee Street, an airport service road.
One of the plane’s main landing gears rested on the other side of Kewaunee, so it appeared that the jolt of hitting the raised roadway sheared off the main gears. The other main gear sat about 75 yards from the roadway, close to the wrecked plane.
Bill English, investigator in charge for the NTSB on the Continental crash, said he hoped his agency would have its “in situ” (in place) investigation completed by Wednesday.
“There are all kinds of systems inaccessible to us beneath the plane,” English said. The plane sat about 100 yards from Kewaunee on its belly with the nose gear collapsed under the plane.
English said the NTSB expects to remove the plane from the crash site so investigators can get at systems underneath. The plane’s fuselage was badly burned on the right side, but the right engine, still attached to the wing, did not show signs of fire damage. Through the burned right side of the fuselage, passenger seats were visible.
The left engine lay a short distance from the left wing, with the engine’s outer covering ripped off.
The 100 yards from Kewaunee to the plane’s final resting place was strewn with small pieces of aircraft debris. One piece said “APU shroud drain.”
The escape doors on the right, or burned side, of the plane were open, but English said firefighters opened them as they were putting out the fire. When Continental’s cabin crew saw flames out the right side windows, they only evacuated out the left side of the plane, English said he was told by Continental officials.
English said he has a “structures” team looking at the issue of how the 737 ended up where it did in the condition it is in. Orange paint marks on the ground will assist investigators with GPS and survey positioning, he said.
