Federal investigators said late Monday that an unusual rattling sound can be heard on the cockpit recorder of a Continental Airlines flight shortly before it veered off a runway after an aborted takeoff Saturday, injuring more than three dozen people.
National Transportation Safety Board officials said the jet's pilots aborted takeoff at high speed in a bid to keep from hurtling off the side of a runway at Denver International Airport last Saturday. But the plane became uncontrollable anyway and within seconds slammed into a snowy ravine.
Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB member on site who is serving as spokesman for the federal and industry crash teams, told a press briefing late Monday that an interview with the plane's copilot revealed that
the jet began drifting off the center of the strip as it reached about 103 m.p.h. Board officials estimate the aircraft reached a maximum speed of more than 135 m.p.h. before veering off the runway, sliding across a field and ending in the ravine with its left engine and main landing gear sheared off. (Bold and underline mine)
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123001946569629719.htmlThe Continental 1404 crash at Denver International (KDIA) is beginning to sound a lot like the US Air 5050 crash at New York's LaGardia (KLGA) in 1989. I was involved with the US Air 5050 accident investigation and the investigation of another near-disaster involving Boeing 737-300/400 rudder trim. The Continental 737 at KDIA appears to have had serious directional control problems on the runway, just like US Air 5050 had on KLGA's runway 31 that September night in New York. Rudder trim? Nosewheel steering? Rudder actuator (like US Air 427 at KPIT in 1994)?
USAir 5050 in the water off end of runway 31 at NYC's LaGardia.