Vanderbilt Television News Archive

(Studio: Dan Rather) Report introduced.

(Denver, Colorado: Bob McNamara) Denver, Colorado, jetliner's crash seconds after takeoff reported Investigations of Continental's flight 1713 said could take mos. before cause of accident can be determined. Various possible causes of crash listed; scenes shown. No. of dead and surviving passengers cited. [Survivor Laura HOBBS - talks about walking away from the crash and how she could not believe she was notharmed.] Crash noted worst in Colorado history. Airport officials' insistence that weather was not the problem noted. [Denver, Colorado, director of aviation George DOUGHTY -says the weather was not severe enough to close the airport.] Scenes of wreckage shown. [Survivor Robert LINCK - talks about the debris he was under and how long he had to wait for rescuers to find him.] Graphic depiction of crash shown and discussed. [Bernice BRENHAM - describes how she and her daughter were saved.] Scenes of families arriving in Denver, Colorado, to be with the surviving passengers shown. Questions of why there was no fire or explosion and the cause of the crash addressed.

(DC: Peter Van Sant) Black boxes of Continental flight 1713 shown being examined in DC. [National Trans. Safety Bd. James BURNETT, Junior - discusses the investigation.] Report of fireball inside cabin mentioned. [Survivor Robert LINCK - describes the explosion and fire inside the plane.] Conflicting reports of how long it was before wings were deiced discussed. [LINCK - says there was ice on the wings just before takeoff.] [Continental Airlines Bruce HICKS - cites number of times wings were deiced.] [Former NTSB investigator Frank TAYLOR - discusses effects of ice on wings and tail of a plane.] Pressures on pilots to avoid delays noted. [Unidentified PILOT - says pilots are told not to report problems until next station so planes will be on schedule.] Investigation of Continental Airlines said scheduled. [Air safety investigator Len NAHMI - says Continental is the most unsafe carrier and something should be done about it.] DC-9's engines and wingflaps said also to be studied by investigators. DC crash team shown examining wreckage.

(Studio: Dan Rather) Another person pronounced dead from the crash reported