All Passengers Escape Burning Airliner

Updated, videos added. 
Update # 2, more photos and passenger eyewitness report added. 

A CONTINENTAL AIRLINES 737 SWERVED OFF the runway at Denver International Airport Saturday evening, crashing into a ravine and bursting into fire.

Passenger Alex Zamora captured this image with
his cell phone after he got away from the plane.

The plane was taking off and had traveled about 2,000 ft. down the 12,000-ft. runway when, just as it was starting to get airborne, it suddenly swerved and skidded off the runway traveling about 200 yards before coming to rest in a slight ravine.

The 107 passengers and 5 crew members all escaped the plane via the emergency slides just as the plane started to burn.  38 58 people were injured and transported to hospitals, most of them suffering from bruises and broken bones.  Two people are in critical condition with fractures.

KMGH-TV has this early video report:

The fire department was on the scene quickly and knocked the fire down without any difficulty, but they had to initiate an interior attack as well because the fire had penetrated into the cabin.   The runway was clear at the time and there is no immediate answer to what caused the plane to suddenly drop and veer off course.  FAA investigators are already on the scene.

KUSA-TV photo

Airport Division Fire Chief Patrich Hynes gave the press this description of the FD’s actions in the fire and rescue:

Update, 12:30 pm
One of the passengers who escaped without injury had his PDA with him and as soon as he reached the triage area he started uploading messages to his Twitter page.  After his battery went dead, he continued after returning home.  Here are some excerpts:

Ugh … My glasses fell off in the mass exodus getting off the plane .. Can’t see very well

Continental keeping us locked up at the presidents club until they can sort everything out. Won’t even serve us drinks.  You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can’t even get a vodka-tonic. Boo

to all who’ve asked, it’s hard to know exactly what went wrong — we were in the middle of a normal takeoff when we suddenly veered off

shortly after we veered off, the plane quite obviously left the runway at high speed (maybe 100 kts) and proceeded to go 4 wheel driving

i think we might have gone into a ravine and dropped some distance as there was a sudden bottom-dropped-out feeling and then a jolt      i believe it was after the jolt that the right engine, which was near my row, caught fire

by the time the plane stopped we were burning pretty well and I think I could feel the heat even through the bulkhead and window

Read all of his entries about his evening of upset HERE. (scroll down)

Investigators are looking closely at the possibility of a wind shear from reports of a 30 mph wind gust on the airport at the time of the crash.
KMGH-TV reports:

Two passengers who are from northern Colorado, and were on the way to Houston for the holidays, said they were sitting on the left side of the plane when they felt a wind gust move them off the runway, causing the plane to bank heavily to the right and forcing the right wing to hit the ground.

 

“All of the sudden, the plane just turned sideways,” said one passenger, who asked not to be identified. “We were going down the runway and it was just … it was like we were in the air and then we weren’t.”

 

“They had a very stiff crosswind tonight — 31 knots — that’s pretty stiff. Taking off in an aircraft, it can give you the feeling that the airplane is actually flying. The plane is starting to ride real light on the struts, so people may have thought they were flying, when in actuality the airplane was still on the ground,” said Greg Feith a former NTSB Investigator.

This photo by Helen Richardson of the Denver Post shows the lengthy
skid of the airliner before it came to rest in the “ravine.”