Continental Airlines Flight 1652

The accident plane at Washington National Airport in 1982

***Continental Airlines Flight 1652*** was a regular scheduled domestic flight operated by Continental Airlines from Stapleton International Airport, Denver, CO, U.S to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, WA, U.S. On November 29th 1983, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 crashed on the runway after attempting to land at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in a heavy snowstorm. Sixty-four passengers and two crew members died in the incident.

## Backround information

### Aircraft

*Continental Airlines Flight 1652* was operated by a 15 year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 regiestered as **N1309T** for Texas Interantional Airlines. **N1309T** then moved to New York Air until December 8th 1980 whenNew York Air merged with Continental Airlines. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 flew for 3 years until Continental Airlines Flight 1652 crashed making it a hull loss. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D low-bypass turbofans below a T-tail.

### Crew

The captain was 42-year old Ben Zwónęk Jazdyk; a Polish-born American with American citizenship. Zwónęk was born when Poland was under Nazi-rule where life was tough but luckily he wasn't executed like the Jews. He had been with Continental since 1968. He has a total of 11,232 hours of flight experience, 1,298 of them on the DC-9. He survived the crash though he sadly passed away from his injuries on December 23rd 1983 **(1941-1983)**. He had been upgraded to captain 7 months prior by Continental Airlines. The first officer was 28-year old Lee Howard Jefferd, hired by Continental Airlines 6 months prior to the crash. He had previously flown for Hughes Airwest. He had a total of 2,325 hours of flight experience, but only 169 of them in the DC-9, which was the whole extent of his turbojet experience and he hasn't flown at all for 48 hours. The cabin crew consisted of four flight attendants.

### Victims

Onboard Flight 1652 was 79 Americans, 3 Canadians and 3 Britons. In the crash, 63 Americans died along with 2 Canadians and 1 Briton.

 ***Total*** | 79

### Weather

At the time of the accident on a cold Tuesday afternoon across the states, the National Weather Service report that heavy snowstorms and hailstorms around the Northwest parts of Washington (state) and the neighbouring city of Vancouver, BC, Canada. The Canada and the U.S have canceled loads of flights to Vancouver and Seattle though not all. And since Seattle airspace is very unsafe to fly in at the moment, Boeing can't deliver their planes to airlines safely.

## Before the crash

### Stapleton International Airport

Flight 1652 was parked at Terminal 1 and began boarding. There were seventy-nine passengers and six crew on the flight to Seattle. After 45 minutes, the DC-9 began pushbacking from the gate and began taxiing to the runway. As they were taxiing, they were de-iced and then after could begin lining and they were cleared for takeoff so could begin their takeoff roll.

**CVR (Cockpit Voice Recording)**

```
14:15 PIL  BEN; 60, KNOTS, 80 KNOTS, 100 KNOTS, 120 KNOTS OKAY V1, ROTATE

```

```
14:16 F/O  LEE; POSETIVE RATE.. GEAR UP

```

```
14:16 PIL  BEN; 3 MORE HOURS UNTIL WE ARE IN SEATTLE.

```

### The crash

Flight 1652 climbs to 5,000 feet and then climbs to 12,000 feet before they reach their cruising altitude of 34,000 feet. While in the air, cabin crew start passing around the cabin giving meals to the passengers which was lunch. The Douglas DC-9 continues the route to Seattle without knowing the brutal and dangerous storms. The captain and first officer chat about where they've been to or show old photos when they were children to each other. Along with that the pilots also talk about their knowledge in geography and which city they came from. Zwónęk is from Seattle, raised in Gdańsk located in Poland, and Lee is from Tulsa but was raised in Texarkana. The captain was getting anxious after they flew into the heavy storm when approaching to the Airport because Zwónęk grew up in Seattle as a young teen when his family moved from Poland in 1949 after his family got out of Poland under soviet-rule on a boat heading for Sweden. He knew there was hills and mountains nearby since he lived in a house in the hills. The first officer asked ''Why do you look anxious?'' He replied ''I live here so I know there's rough and hilly terrain nearby, I don't want to crash into those'' he replied to him. The first officer then says ''There's quite a lot of activity this Tuesday, this ain't looking like a safe flight at all'' Also, reason the first officer asked why Zwónęk was anxious is because he comes from Tulsa, which is mostly flat and doesn't know the mountains surrounding Seattle. Captain Zwónęk continues to fly over his hometown of Enumclaw. Then he turns and puts heading 340. Captain Zwónęk gives the controls over to his first officer, not knowing his lack of experience with the aircraft. The first officer struggles with the landing. He then says ''Calm with the approach angle, Jesus Christ'' he says to the first officer who replied ''I know what i'm doing, I can handle this..'' Zwónęk then sweats from the possibility of crashing into something or missing the runway. Zwónęk was infact right.

**CVR (Cockpit Voice Recording)**

```
17:18 PIL  BEN; CALM WITH THE APPROACH ANGLE, JESUS CHRIST..

```

```
17:18 F/O  LEE; I KNOW WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING, JUST- I CAN HANDLE THIS..

```

```
17:18 F/O  LEE; OH LOOK AT THE SPEED! 156 KNOTS.

```

```
17.18 PIL  BEN; LOWER THE SPEED, GOD DAMN IT!

```

```
17:18 F/O  LEE; ROGER. I'LL LOWER THE SPEED

```

```
17.18 PIL  BEN; THE AIRSPEED? AND ALTITUDE

```

```
17:19 F/O  LEE; DAMN IT! 132 KNOTS AND 500 FEET! TOO LOW

```

```
17:19 PIL  BEN; GIVE ME THE CONTROLS

```

```
17:19 PIL  BEN; THROTTLES TO FULL!

```

```
17:19 **200, 100, 50, 40,**

```

```
17:19 PIL  BEN; THANK GOD

```

```
17:19 **30, 20, WING IMPACTS RUNWAY,** PIL  BEN; WHAT THE F**K?! **CRASHING NOISES**

```

```
17:20 PIL  BEN; **UNINTELLEGENT SCREAMING** F*****G F**K I'M DEAD!!

```

```
17:20 F/O  LEE; **TERRFIED SCREAMING** NOOOO!! F**K!!

```

```
17:20 **LEFT FUEL TANK EXPLODES, PLANE EXPLODES**

```

```
17:20                                                            --END OF RECORDING--

```

At **5:20 PM**, *Continental Airlines Flight 1652* crashes on Runway 36C after missing it's planned Runway 36R after the first officer banks the plane to the left leaving them to land on Runway 36C with a slight bank which led to this devastating crash. 66 people were killed. 63 Americans, 2 Canadians and 1 Briton. 16 Americans, 2 Britons, and a Canadian survived the crash. All of the passengers were in a severely injured state. And the saddest part is 22 children died, 1/3 of the people who died on this fateful day. Among the deaths was Alvin "Junior'' Samples, an American comedian and country singer who died at 57. (fictional) After the storm cleared, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived at the crash site and begins to investigate the crash. The whole plane was covered in snow but it was cleared before they arrived there