Continental Airlines Flight 1713

Continental Airlines Flight 1713

A Continental Airlines Douglas DC-9-14 similar to the aircraft involved in the accident.
Accident summary
Date	November 15, 1987
Summary	Loss of control due to atmospheric icing
Site	Stapleton Int'l Airport, Denver, United States
Passengers	77
Crew	5
Fatalities	28 (25 passengers, 3 crew)
Injuries (non-fatal)	28
Survivors	54
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-9-14
Operator	Continental Airlines
Registration	N626TX
Flight origin	Denver–Stapleton Int'l Airport (DEN/KDEN)
Destination	Boise, Idaho

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was a commercial airline flight which crashed while taking off in a snowstorm from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado on November 15, 1987. The Douglas DC-9 was operated by Continental Airlines and was a scheduled flight to Boise, Idaho. Twenty-five passengers and three crew members died in the crash.

Flight 1713 was operated using a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-14, a twin-engine, narrow-body jet airliner (registration number N626TX). The aircraft was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B engines. It was originally delivered to Air Canada in 1966, and sold to Continental in 1982. The airplane had accumulated 52,424 flight hours at the time of the accident.

At the time of the accident, the National Weather Service was reporting moderate wet snow at Stapleton International Airport. The heaviest snowfall rate occurred between 13:10 and 14:20 MST, with peak snowfall rate occurring around 13:50.

Continental Airlines Flight 1713 was scheduled to depart Denver at 12:25, but many flights out of Denver that day were delayed by inclement weather. At 13:03, Flight 1713 taxied from its gate to the deicing pad; air traffic controllers were not aware that Flight 1713 had departed the gate because the flight crew did so without requesting taxi clearance. Deicing was completed at 13:46. At 13:51, Flight 1713 contacted the clearance delivery controller for permission to "taxi from the ice pad." The clearance delivery controller, believing that Flight 1713 was still at the gate and requesting to proceed to deicing, instructed the flight to switch to ground controller frequency. Ground controllers then cleared Flight 1713 to taxi to the deicing pad. Flight 1713, already at the deice pad, taxied from the pad to hold at the end of runway 35L and await takeoff clearance. At 14:05, Flight 1713 was lined up on the number one position at the north end of the runway, and the crew was ready for take off. After several minutes of holding without receiving takeoff clearance, Flight 1713 notified air traffic controllers that they were holding and awaiting takeoff instructions.