Continental Jet Crashes in Snowstorm

DENVER--A Continental Airlines jet with 81 people aboard flipped on its back while taking off from Denver's airport in a snowstorm yesterday and skidded along the runway, killing at least 19 people and injuring 54 more, authorities said.

"We counted 18 dead outside the plane, and there are several dead in the fuselage," said Stapleton International Airport spokesman Richard Boulware. Twenty-one people walked away from the crash, officials said.

The DC-9 twin-engine jet, Flight 1713, was carrying 76 passengers and five crew members from Denver to Boise, Idaho, said Continental spokesman Ned Walker. Walker said the flight originated in Oklahoma City, and the crash took place shortly after 2 p.m. MST.

Rescue work was hampered by falling snow and ice, visibility was poor and some survivors were still trapped inside the plane more than four hours after the accident, authorities said.

"Many people are survivors at this point," Walker said. "It's too early to speculate on anything that could have occurred [to make the plane crash]."

National Transportation Safety Board chairman James Burnett and nine Washingtonbased investigators will fly to Denver to investigate the crash, NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.

At Denver General Hospital, Dr. Peter Pons said there were 19 confirmed deaths and that 54 people were taken to area hospitals with injuries, and three were in critical condition. He said eight people were believed to be in the wreckage, with one or two of them believed still alive.

Rescue workers set up emergency lights on the runway and used electric saws to remove wreckage. The airport was closed shortly after the accident.

"Right now there's emergency operations trying to get injured people extracted from the plane," said Denver police officer John Wyckoff. "It's just a chaotic scene right now."

Boulware said the airplane "is on its back. The tail cone is about 300 yards away. The aircraft is broken amidships. The fuselage split open." Visibility was down to one-eighth of a mile, he said.

As the injured walked into the hospital, one unidentified victim yelled to the waiting news media, "Hey you ghouls, does this make you happy?"