GRAPEVINE, Texas — A Delta Air Lines jet crashed and burned as it was taking off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Wednesday, killing 13 people. Ninety-four leaped or were carried to safety from the plane’s flaming, broken fuselage and a wing.
The Boeing 727-200, carrying seven crew members and 100 passengers including three infants, originated in Jackson, Miss. The jet was en route to Salt Lake City from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport when it went down about 1,000 feet beyond the end of a runway.
It was Delta’s second disaster at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in three years.
On Aug. 2, 1985, Delta Flight 191 from Fort Lauderdale crashed as it approached a runway during a thunderstorm, killing 137 people, including a motorist, and injuring 25 people.
About 60 passengers injured on Wednesday were treated and released from local hospitals, and many chose to complete their flights, Delta officials said. An additional 34 remained hospitalized, including Bernard Glim, 69, and Natalie Glim, 67, identified as residents of North Port on Florida’s southwest coast.
“It’s extraodinary that it was such a survivable accident when you consider the smoke and fire damage,” said a major commercial carrier pilot who saw the 727 after the crash. “It’s very, very lucky.
“There is no reason for this many people to survive. In a situation like this, you don’t have a lot of time. You really have only 25 or 35 seconds to get out with the crowd and the smoke,” said the pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The fatalities in Wednesday’s crash included 12 adults and one infant, and most apparently were from Texas, Delta officials said. Many of those killed were sitting near the rear of the 727.
The cockpit crew survived. But captain Larry Davis, 48, of Greenville, Texas, was listed in serious condition after undergoing spinal cord surgery on Wednesdaynight, officials at Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital said.
“Apparently the pilot made an attempt to abort. … There apparently was an engine problem,” Fred H. Rollins, Delta’s district manager for marketing in Salt Lake City, where the plane was headed, told The Associated Press.
Survivors said they heard bangs coming from the plane moments after it briefly lifted off.
Jim Hammock of Garland, a Dallas suburb, told The Associated Press that the plane bounced three times on takeoff and skidded off the runway.
“We didn’t make 50 feet in the air. We skidded and then the engine exploded. There was pandemonium,” Hammock said. “People were jumping on the plane’s wing and burning themselves on it because it was so red-hot.”
Melissa Jane Lewis, a passenger from Tupelo, Miss., told The Associated Press that she remembered praying out loud and saying “oh God, here we go” as the jet went down.
“I felt the engines losing power and noises like tires blowing out on takeoff,” said Lewis, who suffered only a bruise on her leg. “The fuselage filled with smoke and there was a lot of noise.
“I hung on until the emergency door next to me opened, then I climbed out on the wing and hit the ground running.”
Flight 1141 arrived in Dallas at 8:17 a.m. CDT (9:17 a.m. EDT). It was scheduled to depart at 8:31 a.m., but did not leave the airport until 9:03 a.m., Delta officials said in Dallas.
Delta gave no explanation for the delay that occurred during a busy time at the nation’s fourth-largest airport. The National Weather Service said it was 73 degrees at the time of the crash, with easterly winds at 9 mph, and visibility of 10 miles.
Airport officials closed the airport for about 15 minutes after the jet dived into the dirt and prairie grass about one-half mile from two fuel storage tanks. Other runways were reopened shortly afterward.
Rescue workers and firefighters responded by truck, ambulance and helicopter. Witnesses estimated that it took them only a few minutes to arrive.
The severely injured and burned victims were flown to Parkland Memorial Hospital’s burn unit. Less severely injured passengers were taken to several other local hospitals.
Medical examiners set up an emergency morgue in refrigerated trucks in a nearby field as the temperature climbed.
Witnesses familiar with daily airport operations said the black smoke that came from the crash confused them because firefighters had recently conducted fire drills at the airport.
“I was there just moments after it happened, and the plane was engulfed in flames and smoke,” said Bubba Williams, who works for a shuttle-bus service at the airport and saw the crash from a nearby airport service road.
“It wasn’t but a week and a half ago that the fire department had been practicing by setting fires,” he said. “I thought, ‘They must be doing a fire drill,’ and sure enough, I got over there, and it wasn’t a drill, it was a 727.
“I pulled over right away. You could only see the flame. Once in a while, the flame would lift and you could see the Delta emblem.
“I’m surprised there were any survivors,”Williams said. “I figured if the fire didn’t get them, the smoke would. I was glad people could walk away.”
Another airport worker described how the plane crashed:
“The plane had slid sideways about the last 100 yards on the ground. It wasn’t a violent crash. It wasn’t cartwheeling or anything like that,” airport worker Jerry Weeks told The Associated Press.
Firefighters brought the fuselage fire under control quickly, but the split fuselage smoldered more than an hour after the accident in hazy sunshine that bathed the airport.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators who responded had no immediate indication of the cause of the crash.
A source involved in the federal investigation, however, said that early indications were that the jet took an unusually long time to become airborne, that it climbed only about 80 feet, and that the left wing struck the runway first. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Boeing 727-200 is one of the most popular commercial jetliners, and 1,205 are in use. It has three Pratt & Whitney engines in the tail. The engines were the latest model available, federal officials and Delta officials said.
The plane that crashed was delivered to Delta in November 1973. Federal Aviation Administration officials in Oklahoma City said Delta had reported only three minor problems with the jetliner during the past five years. According to FAA records, those problems were repaired, said Bobbie Mardis, an FAA spokeswoman.
“It had a relatively small list,” Mardis said.
“Family assistance” teams followed similar procedures as they did in 1985, trying to minister to the families of the injured and dead in any way they could. Any close relatives who wanted to fly to Dallas were accommodated and put up in hotels.
With characteristic hospitality, Delta even brought trays of sandwiches, soft drinks and coffee to the reporters stationed in the headquarters lobby.
“This is the Delta way of doing things,” Bill Berry, Delta spokesman in Atlanta, said of the teams. “It has no ulterior motive. The motive is simply to show human compassion.”
Delta was criticized in 1985 for subtly trying to influence families to take out-of-court settlements and not file lawsuits.
THE DEAD
Patrick Scott Morgan, 28, Richardson, Texas.
Barbara Kay Morgan, 29, Richardson, Texas.
Tiffany Lynn Morgan, 14 months, Richardson, Texas.
Millar Browne, 55, Richardson, Texas.
Glen Harvey Campbell, 53, Joshua, Texas.
Jerry Scott Owen, 29, Sanger, Texas.
Philip Vogel, 69, Dallas.
Thelma Vogel, 67, Dallas.
Five others, not yet identified.
THE INJURED
METHODIST MEDICAL CENTER, DALLAS
Gregory Griggers, 22, Jefferson, Ala., stable.
Brian Griggers, 25, Demopolis, Ala., good.
Brad McClarey, 34, Sandy, Utah, stable.
IRVING COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
Norman Newcity, 36, Kennesaw, Ga., good.
BAYLOR MEDICAL CENTER-GRAPEVINE
Russell Smith, 37, Boise, Idaho, admitted for smoke inhalation.
NORTHEAST COMMUNITY HOSPITAL, BEDFORD
Melba McDonald, 36, Texarkana, critical.
Henry McDonald, 34, Texarkana, guarded.
Robert Coester, 38, Carrollton, Texas, stable.
Diana W. George, 22, Dallas, fair.
Carey Wilson Kirkland Jr., 37, co-pilot, Monroe, La., fair.
Stephen Boynton, 30, The Colony, Texas, guarded.
PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, DALLAS
Larry Davis, 48, Greenville, Texas, captain of Delta 1141, fair.
Edmond Fadal, 63, Waco, Texas, critical.
Bernard Glim, 69, North Port, Fla., good.
Natalie Glim, 67, North Port, Fla., good.
David Wilson, 51, Jefferson, Ala., fair.
HARRIS HOSPITAL-FORT WORTH
Frank Nix, 66, Waco, Texas, fair.
Jean Nix, 54, Waco, Texas, fair.
HARRIS METHODIST H.E.B. HOSPITAL, BEDFORD
Colette Callow, 25, Arlington, Texas, stable.
Edith Coleman, 72, Casper, Wyo., stable.
Dana Deison, 27, Fort Worth, stable.
Thomas DeWitte, 59, Shreveport, La., stable.
Ronald Dyer, 38, Pearcy, Ark., stable.
Randall Foreman, 38, Keller, Texas, stable.
James Fuchs, 50, Farmington, Utah, stable.
Stella Grigg, 80, Troup, Texas, stable.
Bernyce Hill, 71, Buhl, Idaho, stable.
Steve Judd, 31, flight engineer, Dallas, fair.
Joe King, 38, Dallas, stable.
Frank Martin, 74, Springhill, La., stable.
Marella McMahan, 31, Mather, Calif., stable.
Mary O’Neal, 57, Dallas, fair.
Troy Prater, 37, Dallas, stable.
Tammy Robert, 24, West Monroe, La., fair.
Robert Reinholt, 54, Yakima, Wash., stable.
Barbara Smith, 53, Denton, Texas, stable.
Sandra Safier, 32, Sugar Land, Texas, fair.
TREATED AND RELEASED:
Walt Allen, 42, Dallas.
Robert Anderson, 41, Dallas.
Damon R. Berry, 37, Oth, Utah.
L.E. Bettes, 53, Great Falls, Mont.
David Carmichael, 35, Monticello, Ark.
Michelle Christensen, 25, Dallas.
Kay Koop, 30, Irving, Texas.
Marjorie Dewitt, 56, Shreveport, La.
Ben Diamond, 77, Shelby, N.C.
Danny Ellington, 40, Talari, Calif.
A.A. Frymark, 71, Hurst, Texas.
Jerry Galloway, 27, Colleyville, Texas.
W.T. Glass, 60, Bastrop, La.
Russell Guttu, 24, Salt Lake City.
Jim Hammack, 29, Garland, Texas.
John Hanson, 58, Shangaloo, La.
Alicia Haynes, 32, Dallas.
Gerhard Helmut, 47, Austria.
Wilbur Hill, 64, Buhl, Idaho.
Shelly Hughes, 31, Calgary, Alberta.
Robert James, 35, Anchorage, Ala.
Vera Kirkland, 59, Whitman, Texas.
Melissa Lewis, 24, Tupelo, Miss.
Elsie Martin, 73, Springhill, La.
Audrey Mattson, 32, Webster, Texas.
Gary Mauney, 37, Norphlet, Ark.
Joyce Millard, 61, Port Allen, La.
David Mosal, age unknown, Jackson, Miss.
Darlene Owens, 27, Dallas.
Dale Owens, 59, Bentonville, Ark.
Geraldine Owens, 59, Bentonville, Ark.
Geoff Parkes, 37, Dallas.
Dale Patterson, 36, hometown unknown.
Mohammad Payrovi, no information.
Sarah Roberts, 2, West Monroe, La.
Edana Robnett, 28, Greenwood Spring, La.
Allen Sarvis, 7 months, Euless, Texas.
Christopher Sarvis, 3, Euless, Texas.
Norma Sarvis, 32, Euless, Texas.
James Sarvis, 33, Euless, Texas.
Dennis Selvaz, 42, West Valley City, Utah.
Jeff Sham, 27, Maude, Texas.
Buddy Smith, 55, Benton, La.
Lori Smith, 27, Cardova, Tenn.
Karie Solomon, 22, Euless, Texas.
Charles Stewart, 44, Monroe, La.
Mona Thomason, 36, Dickerson, Texas.
Keith Thompson, 44, Dallas.
Sam Thompson, 59, Euless, Texas.
Paul Verheyden, 33, Duncanville, Texas.
Dan Walker, 40, Dallas.
Penn Waugh, 38, Dallas.
Adam Wood, 3, Garland, Texas.
Evan Wood, 5, Garland, Texas.
Jane Wood, 26, Garland, Texas.
Peter Wright, 37, Dallas.
Phillip Zetzman, 25, Dallas.
