2nd alarm hard landing at DIA, as paged

[Warbirdhunter]

Before this gets to heated. I know at first I thought the plane was inbound from Houston and had problems on landing. There was rumor of a wing on fire pre crash, and of course I did not have DIA in my scanner. Now I do . But it sounded from over the air like a mess out there, all they knew is a plane had gone off the runway and they had walking wounded all over the place. But for what it's worth. For a 737 to shear off it's landing gear and and engine( those are meant to fall away under stress anyway). That had to be a heck of a crosswind. And if you look at the 9 news slide show, the impact with the ground was enough to crack the plane And if that crack can be seen from the air, think how big it really is. My hats go off to pilots, first responders, and all the angels they had out there helping.

Did you all hear the part about how the back left slide would not touch the ground? so after they took the slide, they fell another 6 feet to frozen ground. Ouch!

MNN was very good with pages during this accident, well done Jim!

 

[KB9LMJ]

Note however that the page went national nearly 45 minutes after your first alert (1930 MST) so in my mind given the other pages sent maybe a conglomeration that included the overrun or landing info might have been a better choice. My thinking is that if it goes national, it's confirmed to be the best info available.

I appreciate you sending the pages, that's not the concern.

You make a good point..I didn't have my phone on me as I was working, so I didn't see the national alert that was sent. But I do remember as I was just deleting all the many pages both from IPN and MNN, I do remember the national alert one was quite some time later. I didn't look at it to see what it said. So assuming it was what you said, they could have chosen more accurate information from some of my updates. <shrugs>

 

[Warbirdhunter]

Did anyone else hear last night when they put 2 choppers on standby, one was from Aurora North. The other was from Evans?? Is that the 2nd closest bird? why not spa ridge?

 

[jimmnn]

Did anyone else hear last night when they put 2 choppers on standby, one was from Aurora North. The other was from Evans?? Is that the 2nd closest bird? why not spa ridge?

It all depends who is available and not on others calls Charles when the request is made and as you heard EMS command was just requesting a ground standby at the time.

http://www.airlifedenver.com/CustomPage.asp?guidCustomContentID=6CCEB4AE-0A79-4311-9140-35EE15F1D77D

Jim<

 

[Warbirdhunter]

It all depends who is available and not on others calls Charles when the request is made and as you heard EMS command was just requesting a ground standby at the time.

http://www.airlifedenver.com/CustomPage.asp?guidCustomContentID=6CCEB4AE-0A79-4311-9140-35EE15F1D77D

Jim<

Thanks Jim!

 

[n0doz]

Radio comms were confused for a time. That's normal. The main thing is that, no matter how it sounded on the radio, the crews on the ground responded properly and directly. That's the only part of radio that I don't like - the job in person is sometimes different than the job you hear on the air.

 

[rfburns]

Colorado's last Airline crash, anyone remember this one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Airlines_Flight_1713

Yes, I was there. What a cold, miserable night.

Probably the two things that I remember the most was the initial radio transmission from Red Leader. (I had worked the night before and was sleeping, but the first radio transmission rolled me out of bed.) I remember RL saying something about it being a big jet that was down. There was quite a bit of initial confusion about exactly what had happened and precisely where on the airport it was as the visibility in the snow was not very good.

The 2nd thing was the extrication of a couple of survivors which seemed at the time to go on for hours.

Not mentioned in Wiki that I saw, was that a DFD firefighter's wife was a passenger. If I remember correctly he was on scene and did not know the fate of his wife for awhile.

 

[Warbirdhunter]

Yes, I was there. What a cold, miserable night.

Probably the two things that I remember the most was the initial radio transmission from Red Leader. (I had worked the night before and was sleeping, but the first radio transmission rolled me out of bed.) I remember RL saying something about it being a big jet that was down. There was quite a bit of initial confusion about exactly what had happened and precisely where on the airport it was as the visibility in the snow was not very good.

The 2nd thing was the extrication of a couple of survivors which seemed at the time to go on for hours.

Not mentioned in Wiki that I saw, was that a DFD firefighter's wife was a passenger. If I remember correctly he was on scene and did not know the fate of his wife for awhile.

Wow I can't even begin to think how a scene like that looks to a first responder. That Firefighter had to be devastated when he found out, do you know if she survived? I'm not sure I could handle that, going to aircraft wreck site, just to find out I had family on that flight.

Thanks for your service though, from that link it sounds like you all just got there in time

 

[rfburns]

That Firefighter had to be devastated when he found out, do you know if she survived?

If I remember correctly, she had relatively minor injuries, but he did not know her status for some time.

 

[Warbirdhunter]

I am not sure anyone here has been out there to see the site for their own eyes, but I was just wondering how close that plane came to the firehouse. From the air it looks like a good 20+ feet, but I could of swore it was closer.

From the damage they showed on the news, I would think that airframe has a date with the bone yard in Arizona

 

[KB9LMJ]

Hey rfburns, PM me with your info. I'm sure I've run into you on the job if your DFD. Thanks!

You're in GS FM19?

 

[rfburns]

You're in GS FM19?

My office and one residence is in FM19. When I'm not there, I'm in Colorado or travelling somewhere in the U.S.

 

[n0doz]

I had an opportunity to go to the crash site yesterday. It actually looks small out there, but that's because of the vastness of the area. Still, it's very scary-looking. The path was about 75-100 yards from the fire station. One thing that I noticed in particular was that you don't see a thing until you are right up on it, because of the dip in the terrain. Also, it's fortunate that it happened where it did, because it was a relatively smooth path. Other areas would have involved a drop of 100 or more feet, which I think would have caused much more destruction and probably would have resulted in fatalities. Some real lucky people.

 

[poltergeisty]

As many of times I've flown to and from DIA, I have never imagined that the sides of the runway go down 100'! Wow! *shakes head* That's just unbelievable.

Check out the topography! http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.87783...40.46132,-104.96312,5.6 km WxSW of Windsor CO

 

[Warbirdhunter]

I had an opportunity to go to the crash site yesterday. It actually looks small out there, but that's because of the vastness of the area. Still, it's very scary-looking. The path was about 75-100 yards from the fire station. One thing that I noticed in particular was that you don't see a thing until you are right up on it, because of the dip in the terrain. Also, it's fortunate that it happened where it did, because it was a relatively smooth path. Other areas would have involved a drop of 100 or more feet, which I think would have caused much more destruction and probably would have resulted in fatalities. Some real lucky people.

Wow thanks for sharing that. I think there where some angles at work that night. A drop of 100 in a crashed Jet, your right it could of been worse. Thanks again for sharing your story Sir. Hope you and all the public safety out there have a happy and safe new year.