NTSB: Denver crash pilots failed to deal with wind

— -- The pilots of a Continental Airlines jet that skidded off a runway in Denver on Dec. 20 failed to use the jet's rudder to keep it straight in a powerful cross-wind, according to preliminary data released by investigators Friday.

The Boeing 737-500, which was bound for Houston with 110 passengers and five crewmembers, left the runway at about 130 mph. It broke apart and burst into flames, but everyone survived. Five people suffered serious injuries, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The attention on aviation safety this year has focused on the remarkable landing of a powerless US Airways jet in the Hudson River after hitting a flock of birds in January and the deaths of 50 people in a commuter plane crash in Buffalo in February. But the Continental crash was one of the most serious accidents on a large U.S. jet in years.

The data released Friday contains extensive reports on the crew, the weather and the plane, but stops short of naming a cause for the crash. That will come later this year or nearly next year.

The pilots of the jet — Capt. David Butler, 50, and co-pilot Chad Levang, 34 — noticed the wind as they prepared for takeoff, but were surprised at how strong the breezes were, they told investigators. An earlier weather report they had reviewed reported only moderate winds.

"Looks like you got some wind out here," Butler said as they sat on the runway waiting for clearance to takeoff.

"Yeah," Levang replied.

"Oh yeah, look at those clouds moving," Butler said, according to a transcript of the jet's cockpit voice recorder.

Just before their takeoff attempt, an air-traffic controller radioed that the wind was blowing from their left at 31 mph.

Continental's manuals instruct pilots to use the rudder, a moveable panel on the fin the rises vertically from the tail, to keep a jet pointed straight when taking off in a cross-wind. It also says not to steer using the front wheel above taxi speeds, about 20 mph.