Continental Airlines passenger John Wilson recalled the moment at Denver International Airport 18 months ago when Flight 1404, a Boeing 737-500, went off the left side of runway 34 Right during takeoff and bounced over uneven terrain before coming to a rest with the fuselage cracked in half and the plane’s right side on fire.
“We launched off of the berm and lost the engine and landing gear. Pure chaos. Like a bad roller coaster with lots of screaming,” Wilson said of the Dec. 20, 2008, crash.
“My 8-year-old son had the window seat and the window popped out in his lap and the fan/light unit fell onto me and then him. He calmly asked if I could get the debris off of him and unbuckle his seat belt so he could get off the plane,” said Wilson, who was traveling to Houston with his wife and son for a family gathering.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board will identify the probable cause of the crash and make safety recommendations gleaned from the agency’s 1 1/2-year investigation.
All 110 passengers and five crew members escaped from the burning jet, but 37 were injured. Capt. David Butler, who was piloting the plane on takeoff, and at least five passengers were seriously hurt.
Butler and First Officer Chad Levang were attempting a takeoff “in strong and gusty crosswind conditions,” NTSB said, and wind could well be a factor as the agency identifies the accident’s cause.
Before they taxied to the runway, Butler and Levang had received data showing winds at DIA were “at 270 degrees and 11 knots” — that is, from the west at about 13 miles per hour.
Yet as they approached 34 Right — a north-south runway — an air traffic controller in the tower at DIA told the flight crew “that winds were 270 degrees at 27 knots (31 mph) and cleared them for takeoff,” according to a factual report on the accident that NTSB released last year.
“The controller’s wind report surprised the flight crew because it was higher than the wind reported” earlier, NTSB said. Both pilots “raised their ears” because of the discrepancy in wind reports, but for a dry runway, a 27-knot crosswind “was within limits” and they continued with takeoff preparations, according to NTSB interviews with the pilots.
Investigators asked Butler to characterize the difficulty of taking off with “winds 270 at 27 knots.”
“He stated that on a scale of 1-10, the difficulty of handling it while performing a smooth takeoff so that people would not notice was 7 out of 10,” the NTSB said. “Mr. Butler said that if he had been concerned about the safety of the takeoff, he would have changed runways.”
In describing the takeoff, Butler reported, “It was like someone had put their hand on the tail of the airplane and weathervaned it to the left,” according to the interview.
At Tuesday’s meeting of NTSB’s board, the agency is expected to review the performance of Butler and Levang as well as evacuation actions taken by flight attendants and two off-duty pilots who were traveling as passengers on Flight 1404.
NTSB also will likely analyze the condition of the jet’s mechanical systems and assess the actions of air traffic controllers and emergency personnel who responded to the crash.
An accident in which all survive is especially useful to NTSB because post-crash interviews with crew members and passengers can help investigators prepare the “human performance” and “survival factors” portions of their report.
Continental pilot Richard Lowe was in seat 8D on Flight 1404, hitching a ride back to the airline’s Houston hub, and he told NTSB investigators that after the crash, “there was a tremendous confluence of passengers trying to exit through the overwing exit. Five people were trying to get out for every one that got out. No one wanted to be second.”
Also recalling the evacuation, Wilson said, “We all knew the plane was on fire. In fact, with the electricity off in the plane, we could only see by the orange glow of the fire. Every window on the right side was orange. Yet most people were calm and waited to exit.”
“There were a few yahoos, as a couple of people jumped over seats and cut in line and one guy clogged the aisle by trying to get his luggage from the overhead,” Wilson added. “Some people screamed and folks pushed a bit, but no one got trampled. I was surprised people behaved as well as they did. Many helped others.
“The wing was covered in jet fuel, so everyone was slipping on the wing. We helped many folks off of the ground who had slipped on the wing. Fortunately, the wing was close to the ground because the landing gear and engine were gone. Our situation would have been very different if the left wing had caught on fire as well.”
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
