Soft ground in a ravine at Denver International Airport where a Continental Airlines jet crashed nearly two weeks ago made retrieval of the wreckage difficult Friday, forcing officials to wait until Saturday morning to complete the move.
The National Transportation Safety Board had the plane’s wrecked fuselage loaded on two flatbed-truck trailers around 4 p.m., but soft ground at the crash site made it tough for trucks to drive out of the low area west of Runway 34R, said DIA spokesman Jeff Green.
The NTSB planned to take the wreckage to a ramp area at DIA near Continental’s hangar for further examination.
The main portion of the fuselage, including the wings, was placed on one trailer, while the rear portion, including the tail, was loaded onto a second trailer, Green said. Other smaller parts of the aircraft were being carried by a third truck, he said.
At 5 p.m. the truck with the trailer carrying the fuselage’s tail portion was able to get out of the low area up to DIA’s nearby fire station No. 4.
But with darkness setting in, moving the rest of the plane had to wait until Saturday, officials said.
Because the burned plane has been lying on its belly since the Dec. 20 accident, investigators have been unable to examine the aircraft’s nose landing gear, which collapsed when the jet slid off the left side of Runway 34Right.
