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NTSB Lets Reporters Get Up Close To Plane Wreckage

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Jan 5, 2009 7:32 pm US/Mountain

NTSB Lets Reporters Get Up Close To Plane Wreckage

Reporting
Paul Day
DENVER (CBS4) ― The National Transportation Safety Board says it has all it needs in its investigation into what caused Continental Flight 1404 to crash at Denver International Airport on Dec. 20, injuring 37 of the 115 passengers.

Nobody was killed after the Houston-bound plane went careening off Runway 34.

CBS4's Paul Day was able to get a close up look of the wreckage of the plane, which is now stored in a hanger at DIA.

Investigators still have months of work ahead of them before they can find a cause of the crash, but Monday the NTSB said it found no evidence of engine failure.

Bill English is the investigator in charge for the NTSB. His team was able to reach deep behind the nose wheel and recovered what English believes will be new information from what's been learned from recovering the plane's flight data recorder.

"It's an additional recorder that may help give us some additional information about the performance of the aircraft," English said.

English said the fuel tank of the plane ruptured and spilled fuel onto an engine where it ignited once the jet stopped.

Even though the plane burned after the crash, English says no vital evidence was destroyed by the fire.

"We won't know until we examine some of those electronics, but they all appear to be visually, anyway, in good shape," he said.

The landing gear also appeared to be in operating order.

English says his team has removed vital parts of the aircraft, but months of testing an analysis are ahead.

"We've pretty much taken from the airplane, hopefully, everything we will need," he said. "We're going to leave the airplane here, probably until the end of the month or so, just in case."

English said once his team is sure they no longer need the plane, it will be disassembled.

"Then it will go to the bone-yard in Greeley."

The NTSB says it will take at least a year to determine the exact cause of the crash.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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