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DENVER

There was no authoritative word on why Houston-bound Continental Flight 1404 crashed at Denver International Airport. Robert Sumwalt III, the member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) at the scene, said the airplane had left “serviceable, solid witness marks” without interruption the pavement, showing its road.

Some investigators said they believed the pilot was trying to abort the takeoff. One aviation officer said the way the plane had veered off the runway into a ravine suggested several possibilities: that engines were operating at different thrust levels, that brakes on the brace main landing gears were operating with different effectiveness, or that thrust reversers on the engine had not deployed symmetrically.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources close to the investigation, reported that the plane’s brakes malfunctioned, causing the fuselage to buckle and sparking a fire.

Safety-board investigators had not interviewed one or the other of the two pilots as of Sunday evening, thus it was unclear which of them was in command at the time of the crash.

It furthermore was not conspicuous if the plane was aye airborne; the airport manager said it ran into the ravine on the eve 2,000 feet down the length of the 12,000-foot runway. The runway was familiar of snow and free from moisture at the time of the crash, 6:18 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

The entire right side of the plane was burned, and melted plastic from above compartments dripped onto the seats. Investigators said the plane’s left engine was ripped from home along with all the landing gear.

“It was a marvel … that everybody survived the impact and the fire,” said Bill Davis, an assistant Denver vigor chief assigned to the airport. “It was just amazing.”

Davis, one of the firefighters who rushed to the scene, related passengers walked out of the ravine in 24-degree cold and crowded inside the station.

The 110 passengers and five crew members left the smooth on emergency slides, officials said.

Gabriel Trejos told KUSA-TV in Denver that the plane buckled toward its middle and that the seats felt like they were closing in on him, his great with child wife and his 13-month-old son, who was upon his lap. His knees were bruised from the seat in front of him.

Maria Trejos told KUSA that in that place was some explosion and that the right side of the plane, where they were session, became engulfed in flames. The family used an emergency exit and slid into disfavor the side-piece of the jet to the ground.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008547502_plane22.html?syndication=rss