The Continental Airlines captain who was flying the 737-500 jet that crashed last weekend at Denver International Airport has been released from a hospital, Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said Friday.
Thirty-eight of the 115 passengers and crew aboard were hurt when the jet went off the left side of the runway while taking off.
Two of the injured remained in University of Colorado Hospital in fair condition Friday, a hospital spokewoman said.
“We have been processing baggage and personal items, and we are communicating directly with passengers regarding their baggage,” Cripe said. “We will work diligently to reunite passengers with their baggage and personal belongings.”
The right side of the plane was badly burned by a post-crash fire, and it was not clear how many bags and personal items were destroyed.
When the plane left runway 34Right, it traveled through fields and across a taxiway and airport service road before coming to rest about 2,000 feet from the runway.
National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in- charge Bill English said Friday that the agency hopes to move the wrecked plane to a ramp area at DIA early this week so the NTSB can continue its probe of the aircraft.
After examination of the plane at DIA, the wreckage will be moved from the airport to another location, said NTSB spokeswoman Bridget Serchak, who talked to English on Friday. English stressed that the plan to move the plane is tentative and details still had not been finalized.
Both main landing gears on the jet were sheared off, apparently as it bounced over Kewaunee Street, a raised DIA service road that parallels runway 34Right.
Takeoff still a mystery
The cockpit voice recorder shows the flight crew calling for a rejected takeoff 45 seconds after the takeoff sequence began, shortly after a “bumping and rattling” sound was heard on the tape, the NTSB said last week. But investigators have not offered more details on why the crew aborted the takeoff or what caused the plane to veer.
After losing the main gears at Kewaunee, the plane slid on its belly for another 100 yards or so before coming to a halt.
The aircraft’s nose gear lies collapsed beneath the front of the wrecked plane, NTSB board member and spokesman Robert Sumwalt said last week.
The jet needs to be lifted and removed from the wreckage site so investigators can examine the condition of the nose gear and other systems.
Some air safety experts say problems with the nose gear might have affected the captain’s ability to maintain directional control of the plane during takeoff.
‘Go! Go! Go!’
The aircraft’s encounter with the raised service road had passengers “flipping around like rag dolls” in the cabin, said Ken Kelly, who was sitting in Row 6 with his wife and daughter.
“That’s when I thought the plane would disintegrate,” Kelly said Friday. He was also amazed that as the jet traveled over the off-runway terrain, it didn’t “catch a wing, flip and burn” at some other point.
“There was a huge ball of flames when we came to a stop,” said Kelly, whose family was occupying seats 6D, 6E and 6F on the right side of the cabin, with the fire out their window.
A flight attendant at the front of the cabin, despite being injured, quickly opened the left front door, deploying the escape chute, Kelly said.
“She had to have it opened right when we stopped,” Kelly recalled, adding that he and his family were off the plane within 10 to 15 seconds.
“It was unbelievably orderly,” he said of the evacuation at the front, where the chute was bunched up because the fuselage was sitting on the ground. “The flight attendant was yelling, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ ”
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
