Crosswinds May Have Been Factor In Jet Crash

Strong crosswinds probably were a factor in an accident last month that sent a Continental Airlines jet off a Denver runway, aviation safety experts said yesterday.

Several experts raised the possibility that the Boeing 737-500 airliner, carrying 110 passengers, may have experienced "weather vaning," where a strong crosswind pushes a plane's tail and turns the aircraft's nose into the wind, much as it turns a weather vane.

While gusts of up to 37 mph were reported at Denver International Airport on the day of the accident, the experts said, winds were probably not strong enough to explain the accident entirely, and some additional factor -- either mechanical failure or human error -- also could have played a role.

National Transportation Safety Board officials have said the plane's brakes and engines appeared to have been operating normally. Investigators dug the destroyed nose gear out of the ground last week, and safety board spokesman Peter Knudson said preliminary results of that examination may be available later this week.

"We're looking at [crosswinds], but it's just one thing we're looking at," Knudson said. "Nothing is off the table."

"My suspicion is that the crosswind was definitely a factor," said Eric Doten, an aviation safety consultant and adjutant faculty member at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.

"If there's nothing wrong with the engines and nothing wrong with the gear and nothing wrong with that airplane that they can find, then I would suspect that wind is going to end up being the culprit, and that what happened to the airplane is the result of some reaction to the wind, either by the airplane or by the pilot," Doten said.

Continental Airlines Flight 1404 was taking off for Houston on Dec. 20 when the accident happened, injuring 37 people. The main landing gear was sheared off, its nose gear collapsed, and the plane came down on its belly about 2,000 feet from the runway.

One of the puzzles confronting federal investigators is why the jet suddenly turned left off the runway and headed roughly west into gusting crosswinds.

Spokesmen for Boeing and Continental declined to reveal their guidelines on safely operating the 737-500 in crosswinds. However, Knudson said the winds at the time of the accident should have been "within the envelope" of what the plane could withstand.