He said that the planes two black boxes were both recovered in good condition and sent to Washington for analysis. "I've made it through an air crash.". Six students -- nearly one-fifth of the senior class -- and their two adult advisers from Melba High School were returning from a Future Farmers of America convention. Hobbs, an Idaho State University student returning from a Future Farmers of America Convention in Kansas City, said that when the plane crashed, she slid along the ground while strapped into the center of a three-section seat with two other people. That ''de-icing pad'' consists of a remotely operated setup of hoses mounted on booms that spray antifreeze on a jet, similar to what is done at a car wash. Flight attendant Kelly Engelhardt, 35, gave one passenger, pinned upside-down, her own coat to ward off the cold. [14] [15] Investigators likewise determined that First Officer Bruecher was at the controls at the time of the accident. He's also teaching chemistry, but he finds his emotional energy level isn't what it used to be, and that is troubling. Times researcher Dallas Jamison contributed to this story. None of the 20 passengers in the last four rows of Continental Airlines' Flight 1713 died when the DC-9 crashed just after takeoff a week ago today, a survey shows. The seats that we originally had where the plane split apart from the middle front, we would have been dead. As he emerged into the arms of a fireman, he began to realize how fortunate he was. Vermeulen suffered four broken ribs and a punctured lung in the crash, but had recovered enough by late winter to run in the Long Beach, Calif., marathon. 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. "I was sliding along the ground," an animated Hobbs said today. Scottish Island for sale with asking price of $188,000. [4], At the time of the accident on Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service was reporting moderate wet snow at Stapleton International Airport. Twenty-eight of the 82 people aboard died. The tail was coming over, and all the rest was in flames. Daniel and his lawyer, David Comstock of Boise, admit to being exasperated by the legal meanderings. The whole fuselage twisted like a chicken whose neck was wrung, said airport official Richard Boulware. I didn't have control of the plane, but when it crashed I took over and had control.'. "It's really eye-opening to see how long the process takes. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Continental Airlines Flight 1713". DENVER (AP) _ Debi Paschkov says she woke from a doze aboard Continental Airlines Flight 1713 to feel the plane sliding on the runway and see a ball of fire right outside her window. 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. Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was a commercial airline flight which crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, The NTSB investigative team, which arrived here Monday from Washington, will begin probing the wreckage today for further clues. . '', 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.''. [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. . Frank Zvonek, 43, 18-year Continental pilot, Carlsbad, Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is Copyright 2009-2022, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. If you imagine where the plane split apart was like a shovel, it was digging into the dirt at the end of the runway," Jennifer Allegrezza said. WebDead of Winter (Season 18, Episode 10), featuring Continental Airlines Flight 1713. The survivors included Vicky Prasad of Gaithersburg, Md., who Burnett recalled that the FAA had rejected the suggestion, ''and we reconsidered and concurred. Everyone tried to find the exit door and they couldnt. Economy. Comstock said the case was the biggest of his career and the most frustrating. They began to pray, to cry with pain. Douglas Self, 29, Kennewick, Wash., fair. [2] [1] In 21 years of service, it had accumulated over 52,400 flight hours and over 61,800 cycles. Because they all died there.". "Just going through my life and being kind to people. Nine months after the crash of Flight 1713, Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashed in Dallas. Both airport officials and survivors, including Helpenstell, said the twin-engine DC-9 appeared to accelerate down Runway 35-Left and lift off normally. I remember thinking, Im going to die 3/8 This is it 3/8 and then I wondered what its going to feel like, Helpenstell said of the moments before the crash. 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. --Mechanical failure. ''I could smell the stink of kerosene and I couldn`t stop thinking about how a spark could set the thing off like a bomb. He said he was wedged between the wall of the plane on his right side and another trapped passenger on his left. No plans were made for a second observance, which some attribute to a yearning by survivors to get on with their lives. Aussie tourist 'very sorry' for drunken, nude rampage in Indonesia. Before boarding the plane, he was the academic head at Nampa's Northwest Nazarene College. Nicholas Goldberg: Is God on the side of blasphemy laws? Two members of the working crew of Flight 1713 survived the crash, both flight attendants. "I lay awake all night, not tossing or turning, but wondering: Why did I get out?" Douglas Fels of Kennewick, Wash., suffered only cuts and bruises after being ejected, still strapped in his seat. "We slide for a quarter-mile upside down. Of the 27 still hospitalized, six were listed in critical condition. I want to tell you, a lot of things pass before your eyes when something like that happens, said Helpenstell. Helpenstell, hanging upside down in his seatbelt, was pried from the mangled wreckage of Continental Airlines Flight 1713 2 1/2 hours after it crashed on a runway at Stapleton Airport here. Neither has returned to work. In 1982, after an Air Florida jet became ice-bound and crashed into the Potomac River on takeoff from Washington`s National Airport, the board recommended that the FAA require pilots and ground crews to inspect wings and control surfaces whenever an airplane remained on the ground 20 minutes after being de-iced. When we stopped on impact, I was surprised that everything {on his body} worked all right.". Flight 1713 crashed shortly after Denver`s first blizzard of the fall. , The people I talked to thought they were incredibly lucky and fortunate. He said there was little conversation among the waiting survivors. Shaken survivors recounted the last terrible moments of Flight 1713 on Monday as federal investigators began trying to find out why the Continental jetliner The pilot, 43-year-old Frank Zvonek, was killed, as was First Officer Lee Bruecher, 26. "I was going to do a talk at an outfitter meeting on Monday the next day. 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. My left hand was jammed between the seat and part of the plane`s roof, which had bent down,'' he said, waving a left arm swathed in white gauze bandages. 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. The whole thing did a somersault. The News said at I thought, Oh my God, this is going to burn, Helpenstell said. Helpenstell had been flying home from his father's funeral when the DC9 jetliner cartwheeled seconds after takeoff and skidded, almost upside down, for a quarter-mile on the ground. 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. "I haven't found a way to put it out of my mind," said Dave Daniel, a Melba High School teacher, who lost his wife in the wreckage. DENVER For two hours after the crash of Flight 1713, Dr. Tom Allegrezza sat upside down, strapped into his seat, while jet kerosene fuel dripped down on his clothing and soaked the blanket firefighters had provided to keep him warm during their rescue effort. Nearly 10 months after the crash, he tried to start working again. As the DC-9 skidded, the left side was tilted over and the tail was inverted; this action caused the middle part of the DC-9 to compress and crush many of the passengers on board. As survivors struggle to heal bodies and minds, a liability tug-of-war drags on, possibly for years to come. There will undoubtedly be tears shed - tears of joy for the 54 who lived, tears of sorrow for the 28 who perished. One flight attendant, Diana Mechling, 33, died in the crash; two other flight attendants survived. Fred H. Helpenstell, a physician from Nampa, Idaho, was trapped in the fuselage for two hours. Jim Burnett, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board team investigating the crash, said that it could take months to determine what caused the accident. Neither Bruecher nor Zvonek had checked the wings for ice before taking off, the board said. Ann Nasrallah, 22, Jacksonville, Fla., critical. The Douglas Tom Allegrezza, 45, Meridian, Idaho, serious. Then came the crash, serious head injuries and lengthy rehabilitation. Excess ice on wings can cripple a takeoff in snowy weather, but Continental said the plane was sprayed with a hot (190-degree) mixture of alcohol and water about 20 minutes before takeoff. Thanksgiving seemed an awfully good thing to think about.. Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado on 15 November 1987. 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. So, there is a reason I'm here. 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. Vermeulen was the only person in the front section of the DC-9 to survive. Allegrezza, a chiropractor from Boise, Idaho, was the first of the 54 surviving passengers to be interviewed by safety board investigators. [1] The remaining 52 passengers and two flight attendants survived. Linck said a fireball erupted through the passenger compartment about five seconds after takeoff and the plane pitched wildly out of control. But a N.T.S.B. [1] [6], A total of 25 passengers and three crew members died due to the crash; the final two fatalities succumbed while hospitalized. Flexible dates. Survivors were taken to Denver-area hospitals, where three were in critical condition today. The cabin crew consisted of three flight attendants. I thought I was going to die. [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. Of the 82 people aboard, 55 emerged alive. WebOn November 15, 1987, Continental Airlines, Inc., flight 1713, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14, N626TX, was operating as a regularly scheduled, passenger-carrying flight between AIR DATE is July 4, 2018 for Discovery Canada and July 6, 2018 for Nat Geo Australia. (The airline had erroneously said Sunday that the flight had come from Oklahoma City.). [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 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. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Those riding the Denver-to-Boise flight included a group of eight from the high school in the tiny town of Melba, just south of Boise. The News said at least 17 of the 25 passengers killed sat in rows eight through 15 - the middle section near where the plane broke into pieces. Of the 82 occupants on board (77 passengers and 5 He said he hopes the service 'will bring everyone together in a positive way. [1], The captain was 43-year-old Frank B. Zvonek Jr., who had been with Continental Airlines since 1969. U.S. District Judge Sherman Finesilver held that all but a few more recently filed cases were bound by Johnson's "exemplar" judgment, and thus could not seek punitive damages. . But Laura Hobbs, of Eagle, Idaho, survived with minor injuries despite flying out of the plane and sliding along the snowy runway, still strapped into her seat. Diane McElhiney, 40, Mountain Home, Idaho, guarded. Stranded bear rescued from Nevada tree using tranquilizer, tarp. ''We call it a slick-wing aircraft,'' Burnett said of the DC-9-10, which was introduced in 1966. Airport officials said Flight 1713, which had arrived here from Wichita a short time earlier, stopped for de-icing before taxiing into position to take off for its final leg to Boise, Ida. [1] According to the aircraft's manufacturer, even a modest amount of ice contamination on the upper wing could impair the lifting performance of the wings and lead to loss of roll and pitch control. The dead included a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old, both of whom had been riding on the laps of adult passengers. A lot of people were screaming. Kenneth Watson, 45, Nampa, Idaho, critical but stable. Hugh Ford, 63, Boise, Idaho, serious but stable. British man breaks world record with 17 flesh tunnels on his face. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. [1] Deicing was completed at 13:46. Frank Zvonek, 43, 18-year Continental pilot, Carlsbad, Calif. First Officer Lee Bruecher, 26, Houston, Texas. Eventually, they cut a hole in the side of the plane beside him and slid him out feet first. When the hurtling plane came to a rest -- its fuselage broken into three sections, its left wing sheared off -- Helpenstell was upside down in a fetal position, his head at the plane's floor and his back pressed against the seat in front of him. . Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was mentioned in the 1988 film Rain Man.[17]. 25 people died while the other 52 survived. The flight, which left in a blinding snowstorm, was en route to Boise with 77 passengers and a crew of five. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/23/us/rear-passengers-survived-air-crash.html. But like investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board he suspects that the DC-9 jet may have had a fatal buildup of ice on its wings while awaiting takeoff Sunday. "I was on a professional track, and I was knocked off that track," Watson said. Said Comstock, "They lost most of their steam; their emotional desire was drained from them.". But he said seat selection is unimportant because fire often spreads throughout an airplane after a crash. [1] Fitzsimons Army Medical Center sent its personnel to assist in the triage of passengers and 10 hospitals treated the survivors. Patti Halford, 27, Boise, Idaho, released. They eventually were able to put up large space heaters to warm the trapped passengers as temperatures fell and night winds blew. It was like someone lit a can of gasoline. Two of the students and one of the adults were listed as missing and presumed dead today; the others are recovering from injuries. the Nampa, Idaho, surgeon said today as he recovered from his remarkably minor injuries: hypothermia and a broken finger. See the article in its original context from. . 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. 'I still have continuous nightmares,' Vermeulen says. My weight pushing against the seat belt made it impossible for me to open the buckle with my right hand. The pair agreed the crash changed their lives. ''I was somewhat apprehensive and, as the takeoff roll started, I fastened my seat belt as tight as I could.''. The NTSB said it is still too early to tell whether there was any major system malfunction. 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 The nightmares, which sometimes repeat themselves twice in a night, never change. spokesman, Ted Lopatkiewicz, said an N.T.S.B. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Sept. 27 that ice on the plane's wings and relative inexperience of the two pilots were the major contributing factors of the crash. Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was taking off from Stapleton Airport for Boise, Idaho. Twenty-one passengers were able to walk out of the wreckage, and were treated for shock. The cause of the crash is under investigation, but many survivors and witnesses say the plane veered wildly to the right and then to the left before crashing. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. I was grateful that I would have a second chance.". The plane lifted off the ground, dipped one way and then back, caught a wing and flipped on its top. . While the wreckage was not charred, Burnett said he saw evidence of soot in the debris. James Marria, 38, Boise, Idaho, critical. See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. [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. 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. So I wanted to sit in the back with my secretaries so they could take notes and type it up for me," Tom Allegrezza recalled. The girl, he said, was concerned about getting enough air. ''We had a good de-icing treatment,'' Allegrezza said, ''but then the plane was still on the ground 20 or 25 minutes later and I could see snow on the wing. Helpenstell could hear screams and cries of distress from some passengers, while others prayed quietly. [7], The NTSB investigated the accident. Stapleton was replaced by Denver International Airport in 1995. The flight, which left in a blinding ", Watson opted to settle his claims rather than go through "a public court session," and he concludes he was "reasonably satisfied with the process.". Watson, 47, doesn't expect to dwell on what happened, although it has perhaps irrevocably altered his life. Another passenger died Monday, bringing the death toll to 27. They expect to spend many months probing why the jet, taking off for Boise, crashed in a blinding snowstorm Sunday, killing 28. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? 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. 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. 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. "After a few minutes of euphoria, I thought, 'We're going to burn now,' " Helpenstell recalled. "The person that was sitting in the seat that I was supposed to sit in isn't here. 'We'll have a church service for everyone that wants to come, and then a reception just for the families and survivors,' he said. . Dog missing for 26 days walked 40 miles to his former home.