Continental Airlines Flight 1713

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was a commercial airline flight that crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, United States, on November 15, 1987. The Douglas DC-9 airliner, operated by Continental Airlines, was making a scheduled flight to Boise, Idaho. Twenty-five passengers and three crew members died in the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation of the accident determined that the most probable cause of the accident was a combination of multiple factors: the failure on the part of the pilot in command to have the aircraft de-iced a second time before takeoff, over-rotation on takeoff by the first officer, and flight crew inexperience.

Accident

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was scheduled to depart Denver at 12:25, but many flights out of Denver that day were delayed by the inclement weather. 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. Deicing was completed at 13:46.

At 13:51, Flight 1713 contacted the clearance delivery controller for permission to "taxi from the ice pad." The clearance delivery controller, believing that Flight 1713 was still at the gate and requesting to proceed to deicing, instructed the flight to contact Ground Control, who then cleared Flight 1713 to taxi to the deicing pad. 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.

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 takeoff. Not kept properly informed of Flight 1713’s 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. Flight 1713 then notified air traffic controllers that they were holding at the start of the runway and awaiting takeoff instructions.

Flight 1713 was cleared for takeoff at 14:14. As the DC-9 was taking off, the pilot over-rotated; the aircraft descended and the left wing struck the ground, causing the wing to separate. A fuel-fed flash fire ignited in the left wing shortly after it struck the ground, causing a "fireball" inside the cabin. The left side of the fuselage and cockpit struck the ground next and the plane continued rolling until inverted. As the DC-9 skidded, the left side was tilted over and the tail was inverted; this action caused the center section of the fuselage to compress and crush many of the passengers on board.

A total of twenty-five passengers and three crew members died in the crash; the final two fatalities succumbed while hospitalized. The captain, the first officer, one flight attendant, and eleven of the passengers died from blunt trauma. In addition, five passengers died of head injuries secondary to blunt trauma and nine passengers died of asphyxia. The remaining 52 passengers and two flight attendants survived. Of the surviving passengers, 25 received minor injuries and 27 received serious injuries. Fitzsimons Army Medical Center sent its personnel to assist in the triage of passengers and 10 hospitals treated the survivors.