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 deiced a second time before takeoff, over-rotation on takeoff by the first officer, and flight crew inexperience.

Background information

Aircraft

Flight 1713 was operated using a 21-year-old Douglas DC-9-14, a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner with the registration number N626TX. The first officer was 26-year-old Lee Edward Bruecher, hired by Continental four months earlier; he had previously flown for Rio Airways

Weather

At the time of the accident on Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service was reporting moderate wet snow at Stapleton International Airport. 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.

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.

Investigation

thumb|The seating chart of Continental Airlines Flight 1713, based on the official NTSB report:<br>The chart illustrates locations of passengers, lack of injuries, severities of injuries, and causes of deaths, all where applicable.

The NTSB investigated the accident.

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. However, the NTSB investigated the wake-turbulence theory and concluded that wake turbulence from the preceding flight would not have affected Flight 1713. Investigators also discovered that before he began working for Continental, First Officer Bruecher had been dismissed from another airline after failing on three occasions to pass a flight examination. Investigators likewise determined that Bruecher was at the controls at the time of the accident. First Officer Carey Kirkland joked with flight attendant Dixie Dunn (the latter a fatality) that they too should discuss their crew's love lives so "then the media would have some kind of juicy tidbit" from their CVR in event of a similar disaster.

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was mentioned in the 1988 film Rain Man.

The crash was the subject of episode 10, season 18 of Mayday, titled "Dead of Winter".

See also

  • Air Ontario Flight 1363
  • Ryan International Airlines Flight 590
  • USAir Flight 405
  • Air Florida Flight 90
  • Turkish Airlines Flight 301

References

  • The haunting memories of Continental 1713, editorial by a former Continental passenger service agent
  • Carolyn Holly reports on 1987 Denver-Boise crash, original video news broadcast of crash in 1987.
  • Pre-crash photos of the airliner at airliners.net