Burnett also raised questions Tuesday night about whether the pilot and copilot of the ill-fated jet had enough experience to have been assigned to the flight. He was thrown from the plane into a snowbank, where his burning clothing was extinguished. He had 12,125 hours of flight experience, but only 166 hours on the DC-9, or "in type." "We slide for a quarter-mile upside down. Allegrezza, a chiropractor from Boise, Idaho, was the first of the 54 surviving passengers to be interviewed by safety board investigators. He made five flights before he had to stop because of the terrible nightmares. All Rights Reserved, SCARS REMAIN FROM DENVER DC-9 CRASH 2 YEARS LATER. AIR DATE is 4 July 2018 on @DiscoveryCanada and 6 July 2018 on @natgeoau . Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was a commercial airline flight which crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Patti Halford, 27, Boise, Idaho, released. April 28 (UPI) -- Animal services officers in South Carolina responded to a home where a resident was shocked to find an alligator in his garage. . There was total calm on the ship.. A ball of flame passed by us as were skidding along.. I tried to think about other things--other trips, things in the past, my wife and family, he said. Josephine Bliss Glynn, 51, Kansas City, Mo.] [1] Not kept properly informed of Flight 1713s position, the air traffic controllers tried repeatedly to have different planes take off, leaving Flight 1713 standing in the falling snow for several minutes and opening the airliner to the risk of "wing contamination" by ice. Because that day 34 years ago, it was a small decision that saved their lives. [8] [9], In July 1988, Continental Airlines filed a report with the NTSB positing the causes of the crash as wake turbulence, poor snow plowing on the runway and errors by air traffic controllers. I want to tell you, a lot of things pass before your eyes when something like that happens, said Helpenstell. Interviewed by The Tribune minutes after he met with a safety board investigator and a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration, Allegrezza described his nightmare of awaiting rescue after the airplane flipped over on the runway and slid a quarter of a mile in a ditch before coming to rest upside down in a pool of freezing slush. Everyone was afraid of a fire, she said. . Not only as an inspiration to live each moment with gratitude, but to also appreciate the small moments in life - and small decisions. He was traveling unaccompanied on Flight 826 to spend Christmas in Yonkers with relatives. [1], At 13:51, Flight 1713 contacted the clearance delivery controller for permission to "taxi from the ice pad." The last survivor was removed from the wreckage four hours after the crash. 'In my dreams, I run up to the cockpit to try to control the airplane. 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. --Mechanical failure. Much of the testimony is expected to focus on the relative inexperience of the pilot and co-pilot, and on the weather. I can see the pilot and I want to take control. Continental has since boosted its minimum-experience standards for pilots - the biggest reform to spring from the tragedy. 'After you've been through one (crash), you sometimes think you're all alone with your feelings. 1 Adult. 'Some of them are of the crash. Web22 Continental Flight 1713 Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 22 Continental Flight 1713 Premium High Two members of the working crew of Flight 1713 survived the crash, both flight attendants. I came very close to hypothermia and I did my best to keep calm by using self-hypnosis.''. 'Fog of bees' briefly interrupts PGA Tour's Mexico Open. Burnett also disclosed that tapes of conversations between the Continental pilot and Stapleton International Airport`s control tower show that the jet had been de-iced at 1:51 p.m. Sunday and that the tower didn`t allow it to take off until 2:14 p.m. Twenty-four minutes after the plane was de-iced at Continental`s newly installed ''de-icing pad,'' pilot Zvonek gunned its engines on his takeoff roll down a runway where visibility was only 2,000 feet. Two years after Continental Airlines flight 1713 crashed while on take-off at Denver's Stapleton International Airport killing 28 people, memories among survivors She recalled that a man on one side of her made a gurgling sound when he breathed and a woman on the other side was bleeding. Passengers, Witnesses Recall Fireball Crash of Continental Flight 1713 With PM-Plane Crash, Bjt. Of the 82 occupants on board (77 passengers and 5 On Tuesday the safety board chairman, Jim Burnett, called two news conferences to describe the first results of an investigation that he emphasized is months away from definitive answers about what caused the crash. I didnt know if I was in the front or the side (of the plane) until I got out, she said. "I lay awake all night, not tossing or turning, but wondering: Why did I get out?" Survivors were taken to Denver-area hospitals, where three were in critical condition today. Screams that filled the cold air continue to fill Vermeulen's dreams. He said he told her: Youre talking fast enough, youve got to be getting oxygen.. T. R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, columnist and foreign correspondent, started work at the paper on inauguration day in 1977. April 28 (UPI) -- A South Carolina woman won a $300,000 prize from a scratch-off lottery ticket just three years after winning a $250,000 lottery jackpot. The tragic crash killed 28 people, and 54 people survived. The psychiatrist said many of the survivors had not yet felt the emotional impact of the event, but might eventually experience insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks and guilt. . But a split-second later, he said, the plane began to tilt sharply to the right. Bruecher was the pilot flying at the time of the accident. Dates*. "I remember thinking, 'I'm going to die,' " Helpenstell said today. On Nov. 15, 1987, a Boise-bound DC-9 jetliner flipped and crashed shortly after takeoff at the busy Denver airport. [1], The captain was 43-year-old Frank B. Zvonek Jr., who had been with Continental Airlines since 1969. . requires airlines to store voice and data recorders toward the rear. [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. Thanksgiving seemed an awfully good thing to think about.. [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. Vermeulen still is undergoing psychiatric care because of the feelings he has about the crash. "The person that was sitting in the seat that I was supposed to sit in isn't here. [15], Investigators determined that 27 minutes elapsed between the conclusion of deicing and Flight 1713's attempt to take off, seven minutes longer than should have been allowed to elapse before takeoff. . ", Watson opted to settle his claims rather than go through "a public court session," and he concludes he was "reasonably satisfied with the process.". His career outlook was bright. Attached photo | imgur Mirror Attached photo | imgur Mirror Attached photo | imgur Mirror Attached photo | imgur Mirror WebNEW EPISODE INFO Season 18, Episode 10 will feature Continental Airlines Flight 1713 (15 November 1987) and is titled 'Dead Of Winter'. Shaken survivors recounted the last terrible moments of Flight 1713 on Monday as federal investigators began trying to find out why the Continental jetliner crashed during a snowy takeoff from Denvers Stapleton International Airport. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Example video title will go here for this video. "There's no doubt in my mind that the anniversary will be a very black day for many of them," said Denver attorney John Breit, who has handled many of the survivors' lawsuits. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. 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. Alligator removed from South Carolina resident's garage. Fred H. Helpenstell, a physician from Nampa, Idaho, was trapped in the fuselage for two hours. Linck said a fireball erupted through the passenger compartment about five seconds after takeoff and the plane pitched wildly out of control. Documents supplied by Continental on Monday indicated that the system had not been fully tested because after it was installed in early 1987, the winter turned Watson recently joined the majority of survivors in accepting a settlement offer from the airline's insurance carrier. It was like someone lit a can of gasoline. I found that if I could disconnect and think about how Thanksgiving would be, or something in the future, that would help. The tail was coming over, and all the rest was in flames. At the news briefings Tuesday, Burnett indicated that investigators are paying particular attention to suspicions that ice on the wings caused the disaster. WebBoise, Idaho. One flight attendant, Diana Mechling, 33, died in the crash; two other flight attendants survived. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Twenty-one passengers were able to walk out of the wreckage, and were treated for shock. The plane was dark, wet and cold, as snow and wind blew in through the smashed fuselage. The crash was the subject of episode 10, season 18 of Mayday, titled "Dead of Winter". Burnett recalled that the FAA had rejected the suggestion, ''and we reconsidered and concurred. [1] When the NTSB later issued its report on Delta 1141, it found that the Delta crew had also engaged in non-pertinent conversation, including a discussion of the cockpit voice recorder from the crash of Continental 1713.[16]. Broke in the Middle. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? He said there was little conversation among the waiting survivors. It has since been decommissioned and the property was redeveloped as a retail and residential neighborhood. He added that the safety board recently warned commuter airlines against assigning new pilots and copilots to the same flight. I never passed out. Comstock said the case was the biggest of his career and the most frustrating. The whole thing did a somersault. Climate change sparks disaster fears, Police manhunt continues for suspect in Texas mass shooting, A powerhouse U.S. doctor slain in Sudan, killed for nothing, In final Mass in Budapest, pope urges Hungary to open doors, What GOPs plan for Medicaid work requirements would mean. DENVER (AP) _ Here are the people who died as a result of the crash of Continental Flight 1713, based on information provided by the airline, the Denver Department of Health and Hospitals and the Denver County Coroners Office: Capt. The seats that we originally had where the plane split apart from the middle front, we would have been dead. . Patrick Lovelady, 17, Melba, Idaho, fair but stable. Nicholas Goldberg: Is God on the side of blasphemy laws? Helpenstell could hear screams and cries of distress from some passengers, while others prayed quietly. [1] [4] [5] Notable victims [ edit] Several famous passengers were among the dead, including: Former world lightweight boxing champion Carlos Cruz, his wife and their two children. Nearly 10 months after the crash, he tried to start working again. Two flight attendants and 52 passengers survived. and there was a thump--not a violent thing--and then it lurched to the left in the same way, the Idaho surgeon said. Dr. Ron Semlow of Troy, Mich., said he looked out the window and saw the other plane somersault. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? [1] It was originally delivered to Air Canada in May 1966 and sold to Texas International Airlines in 1968, where it served the majority of its service until Texas International was acquired by Continental in 1982. "My face and my arm were in the snow.". William Spalsbury, age, hometown unknown. Two of the 54 survivors were Tom and Jennifer Allegrezza. Robert Benzon, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the board is studying several factors, including seating, to explain why some passengers died and others escaped with minor injuries. I didn't have control of the plane, but when it crashed I took over and had control.'. But he said seat selection is unimportant because fire often spreads throughout an airplane after a crash. In the crash I was involved in, I went in and started helping people. AIR DATE is July 4, 2018 for Discovery Canada and July 6, 2018 for Nat Geo Australia. Neither Bruecher nor Zvonek had checked the wings for ice before taking off, the board said. A lot are about just any plane crash. The flight, which left in a blinding snowstorm, was en route to Boise with 77 passengers and a crew of five. (The airline had erroneously said Sunday that the flight had come from Oklahoma City.). , I talked with people who said that people next to them, even though they were pinned in, helped them with their free arm to get out. Scottish Island for sale with asking price of $188,000. There were no survivors among the 97 passengers and five crew members on board. Paschkov was uninjured but suffered shock, and Melissa was in fair condition, being tested for internal injuries. He said he hopes the service 'will bring everyone together in a positive way. 1 More posts from the aircrashinvestigation community 137 Posted by u/Yeet_Man1982 7 days ago Incident/Accident [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. They expect to spend many months probing why the jet, taking off for Boise, crashed in a blinding snowstorm Sunday, killing 28. Burnett noted that safety board files show that three DC-9 jets similar to the jet that crashed Sunday, called a DC-9-10, have crashed because of ice buildup on the leading edges of their wings. He had been upgraded to captain less than three weeks earlier. --Fire. No plans were made for a second observance, which some attribute to a yearning by survivors to get on with their lives. 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. Cipri said he heard one man trapped in the fuselage yelling, Get me out of here 3/8 but the man was dead by the time rescuers reached him. Flight attendant Diana Mechling, 33, Aurora. Paschkov said her seat and others became unbolted so that when the plane came to a stop upside down she was seated right side up while her daughter was hanging upside down. Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado on 15 November 1987. ''We call it a slick-wing aircraft,'' Burnett said of the DC-9-10, which was introduced in 1966. [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. Twenty-eight of the 82 people aboard died. "After a few minutes of euphoria, I thought, 'We're going to burn now,' " Helpenstell recalled. The flight, which left in a blinding It happened so slowly that I had the time to think it three times, said Dr. Fred Helpenstell, a 56-year-old orthopedic surgeon from Nampa, Ida. And the plane had split apart. A fuel-fed flash fire ignited in the left wing shortly after it struck the ground, causing a "fireball" inside the cabin. The haunting memories of Continental 1713, Carolyn Holly reports on 1987 Denver-Boise crash, Pre-crash photos of the airliner at airliners.net, Continental Airlines, Inc., Flight 1713, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14, N626TX, Stapleton International Airport, Denver, Colorado, November 15, 1987, Registration Details for N626TX (Continental Air Lines) DC-9-14 - PlaneLogger, Continental pilot, co-pilot were inexperienced, Plane Crashes in Snow at Denver; 26 of the 82 Aboard Are Killed, Inquiry Into Denver Jet Crash Looks at Possible Ice Buildup, Rescue Coordinator Testifies In Continental Crash Hearing, Airline Says Several Errors Caused Crash Fatal to 28, U.S. Panel Lays Denver Air Crash To Failure to De-ice Second Time, Pilot in Denver Air Crash Had Failed 3 Flight Exams, http://www.aviationexplorer.com/audio/delta_1141.wav. Continental said a memorial service for the victims was planned this afternoon at Denver University. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company. When the seat section stopped, she said, she unbuckled herself and stood. I play the same scenario all the time. Ice contamination shown on a wing. The right wing dropped . Twenty-eight people lost their lives on Nov. 15, 1987. 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. Sometimes survivors feel guilty that they were not able to do anything to help other people in the situation, he said. "I had time to think that a couple of times over. Some passengers on Flight 1713 were thrown from the plane by the impact. We were skidding on our side and eating dirt, said crash survivor Libby Smoot of Ketchum, Idaho. Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was taking off from Stapleton Airport for Boise, Idaho. [1] Fitzsimons Army Medical Center sent its personnel to assist in the triage of passengers and 10 hospitals treated the survivors. Advanced search. Continental merged with UAL Corporation (the parent company of United Airlines) via a stock swap in 2010, and the integration was completed in 2012. Economy. "I thought, my Lord," he said today. WebDead of Winter (Season 18, Episode 10), featuring Continental Airlines Flight 1713. May 1 (UPI) -- Police in England said a pig spotted running loose on a village road was returned to its owner thanks to a loaf of bread. "So I moved everybody from the front of the plane to the back of the plane. Linck, who was leaving on a hunting trip to Idaho, said he was pinned for about an hour, and part of the time talked with a girl who was pinned beneath him. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) characterized the crash as "nonsurvivable". Both airport officials and survivors, including Helpenstell, said the twin-engine DC-9 appeared to accelerate down Runway 35-Left and lift off normally. . Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Of the 82 people aboard, 55 emerged alive. I heard that one young man, among the first out, went back in to help extricate people., Ritvo said the survivors he saw were really bearing up heroically . One flight attendant, Diana Mechling, 33, died in the crash; two other flight attendants survived. The crash killed 28 people. As they were crawling out, passengers unbuckled the seat belts to help those who couldnt do it themselves. The tragic crash killed . Fifty-four survived. The plane flipped on its left side and rolled over, breaking in the middle and at least one other place. John Galipault, founder of the Aviation Safety Institute, said the front of an airplane hits first in most crashes. [1], At 14:05, Flight 1713 was lined up on the number-one position at the north end of Runway 35L and the crew was ready for take off. Cookie policy. Flight attendant Diana Mechling, 33, Aurora, Colo. Anthony Nasrallah, 2 1/2 , Jacksonville, Fla. Peter Nasrallah, 6 months, Jacksonville, Fla. Herman A. Klaassen, 53, Mountain Home, Idaho. ''All I know is that the middle took it the worst,'' Mr. Benzon said. April 28 (UPI) -- An isolated private island off the coast of Scotland is for sale with an asking price of about $188,000. [1] [6], A total of 25 passengers and three crew members died due to the crash; the final two fatalities succumbed while hospitalized. When we stopped on impact, I was surprised that everything {on his body} worked all right.". Nine months after the crash of Flight 1713, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashed in Dallas. [1] Based on this, the NTSB concluded that a small amount of ice on the wings had caused Flight 1713 to have significant controllability problems. Investigators interviewed eight of the Continental survivors and several people who saw the crash from a United Airlines jet landing on the next runway. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Wildfires in Anchorage? The takeoff was delayed about two hours because of the heavy snow driven by a 20-mph wind. Flight attendant Kelly Engelhardt, 35, gave one passenger, pinned upside-down, her own coat to ward off the cold. Vermeulen, 24, was an off-duty Continental flight attendant at the time, on his way home to Boise, Idaho, to be with his parents for Thanksgiving. '', He distributed a report from the FAA that said setting a 20-minute limit, ''is not considered in the best interest of flight safety,'' because it might encourage flight crews to always wait 20 minutes for an inspection after de-icing when sometimes ''ice may form in a much shorter period.''. The girl, he said, was concerned about getting enough air. Two other survivors, Robert Linck, 60, of Green Pond, N. J., and Laura Hobbs, 20, of Eagle, Ida., also told dramatic stories on Monday. Helpenstell recalled today that rescuers reached him fairly soon after the crash but were unable to move him until they had removed several rows of seats behind him. Diane McElhiney, 40, Mountain Home, Idaho, guarded. Survivors of the crash said that, in the moments after the plane careened to a halt, many were able to free themselves from their seat belts and squirm through the shattered fuselage onto the snowy grass between two runways. Then came the crash, serious head injuries and lengthy rehabilitation. There was a big gasp on our flight, he said. [1], The NTSB also determined that First Officer Bruecher's poor performance during takeoff had likely contributed to his loss of control of the airplane. --Icing. But many other passengers had to wait until rescue crews with heavy tools could cut them loose. The boxes, one called a cockpit voice recorder and the other a flight data recorder, are expected to provide the NTSB with the conversations in the cockpit and data about the planes performance in the final seconds before the crash. Burnett noted that the jet had been on the ground longer than 20 minutes after it had been sprayed with antifreeze in preparation for takeoff. Survivors were taken to Denver-area hospitals, where three were in critical condition "It's with me; it's a part of every day.". Where there was tragedy, there were also miracles, and stories of tremendous luck and even greater courage. The dead included a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old, both of whom had been riding on the laps of adult passengers. The technical writer, who lost an eye in the crash, sought millions of dollars and wound up with $800,000 in compensation. Documents supplied by Continental on Monday indicated that the system had not been fully tested because after it was installed in early 1987, the winter turned mild.

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