26 Killed as Jet Crashes in Denver : Plane Breaks Apart After Takeoff Fails in Storm; 56 Hurt

A Continental Airlines DC-9 with 82 people on board slid off a runway Sunday while taking off from Denver’s airport in a snowstorm, flipped over and split into pieces as it skidded along the runway. At least 26 people were killed and 56 injured.

Flight 1713 was carrying 77 passengers and a crew of five and bound for Boise, Ida., a Continental spokesman said.

Driving snow from the season’s first major snowstorm and a 12-degree wind-chill factor hampered rescuers as they worked to free survivors from the wreckage.

‘I’m Going to Die’

“I remember thinking I’m going to die, this is it . . . and then I wondered what it’s going to feel like,” said passenger Fred H. Helpenstell, 56, of Nampa, Ida. He escaped with hypothermia and an injured finger after being trapped in the fuselage for two hours.

Some of those trapped remained for more than four hours as rescue workers using power saws cut through a mangled piece of fuselage in an attempt to reach them.

Others had long since been taken from Stapleton International Airport to area hospitals, some badly injured but others able to climb aboard buses that were rushed to the scene.

One survivor, Douglas Self, 29, of Kennewick, Wash., was found about 50 yards from the wreckage, still strapped in his seat, the Associated Press reported. He suffered a chest bruise and cut face and was in fair condition at Aurora Presbyterian Hospital.

Heat Pumped Into Plane

Emergency lights were set up to aid the rescue operation as night fell and heat was pumped into the fuselage to keep trapped survivors from freezing.

More than five hours after the crash, rescuers freed a man who walked away from the wreckage complaining only of back pains, said Det. John Wyckoff, chief spokesman for the Denver Police Department.

“We got this guy unstrapped, and he got up and walked away from that mess,” Wyckoff said, gesturing toward the floodlit debris.

Scores of emergency vehicles were still at the scene as late as 8:30 p.m., and a crane could be seen moving rubble. The plane was upside down in the snow, its wheels in the air.

By evening, the snow had stopped falling and the frosty fog had lifted enough for the airport to reopen. Airplanes could be seen taking off near the wreckage.

“I’ve seen 25 killed,” Dr. Norm Dinerman, assistant director of emergency medicine at Denver General Hospital, told United Press International. “There’re between three and five still trapped under a wing. Most of the injuries are traumatic.”

Fire Capt. Charles McMillan said 21 people walked away from the crash and some were taken to a fire station 500 yards from the crash site for first aid.

“We counted 18 dead outside the plane, and there are several dead in the fuselage,” airport spokesman Richard Boulware said.

Conflicting Reports

There were conflicting reports on whether the twin-engine jetliner caught fire. There was no obvious evidence of fire at the scene, but some survivors reportedly were suffering from smoke inhalation and control tower personnel said that they saw a fireball when the plane crashed.

“I’m not even sure it did leave the ground,” Bruce Hicks, a Continental vice president, said, adding that there were conflicting reports about whether the pilot attempted to abort the takeoff. “I can’t say for certain whether he did or didn’t,” Hicks said.

He said the plane was de-iced once “a handful of minutes” before departure.

The wreckage at the end of Runway 35 was not visible from the terminal. The view from the windows of the airport terminal was little more than a white mixture of snow and fog, and visibility was reportedly as low as one-eighth of a mile.

A Fire Department official said the plane flipped upside-down on the north-south runway and skidded for over a quarter of a mile before coming to a halt alongside the runway. An airline spokesman said the tail, cockpit and wings had all broken away.

The crash occurred at 1:16 p.m. PST, according to the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington.

Grim-faced Continental employees declined to release information for several hours after the accident, while relatives and friends of passengers on the wrecked plane were shuttled into a private terminal club.

Among the confirmed dead were the pilot, Capt. Frank Zvonek, 43, of Carlsbad, Calif., an 18-year veteran with 12,000 hours of flying time, and co-pilot, Lee Bruecher, 26, of Houston.

A third crew member, identified as flight service manager Diana Mechling, 33, of Denver, was also confirmed dead.

The other two flight attendants escaped with moderate injuries. They were identified as Chris Metts, 27, and Kelly Engelhardt, 35, hometowns unknown.

Hicks said that both pilots had exemplary records and that the plane had undergone its last heavy maintenance check a month ago.

There was no confirmation as to whether the plane’s black box had been recovered.

In the terminal, thousands of passengers stranded by the weather queued up at pay phones, many of them to reassure relatives that they were all right as word of the crash circulated. First 1919250543which flight was involved.

The wail of sirens pierced the muffled, snowy silence on icy roads leading to the world’s sixth-busiest airport.

A half-foot or more of snow blanketed the metropolitan area, including the airport.

Airport monitors listing arrivals and departures repeated one word on flight after flight: “Delayed.”

Denver police Sgt. Ed Connors said that “we would have to assume that” the heavy snowfall and 40 m.p.h. winds contributed to the crash.

The storm had forced airport officials earlier in the day to close two major runways and sharply reduce air traffic, but Continental spokesman Ned Walker said the airport was open when Flight 1713 tried to take off.

The flight had originated in Oklahoma City, with some passengers getting off in Denver and others getting on.

“I really can’t speculate on the causes at this point,” Walker told a news conference, adding that a de-icing program for aircraft was in progress at the time of the departure.

The last major commercial plane crash in the United States occurred on Aug. 16, 1987, when 156 people died when a Northwest Airlines MD-80, a version of the DC-9, crashed on takeoff at Detroit Municipal Airport.

Many investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board were in Detroit Sunday for the opening of hearings into the August crash. Some of them were dispatched to Denver to investigate the latest airline accident.