BOISE - Thursday's Continental airlines plane crash in New York is reminding many in the Treasure Valley of a 1987 crash of an airliner bound for Boise.
Continental Flight 1713 bound from Denver's Stapleton International Airport for Boise on November 15th 1987 killed 28 of the 82 people on board, including the pilot and co-pilot.
The McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 sat in a snowstorm on the runway at Stapleton for 27 minute before taking off. In that time, the wings of the plane accumulated ice, which caused the wings to fail as the plane attempted to take off an investigation later found.
The plane skidded out of control for about a quarter of a mile before sliding off the runway, flipping on its back, and breaking into pieces. The crash left a large crater just off the runway at Stapleton
'It's a miracle anyone walked away from that plane,'' Salvation Army Major George Church told the AP in 1987. ''And it's a miracle that it didn't catch on fire.''
Rescue crews pumped heat into the plane's fuselage and ran IV lines to survivors still inside the wreckage while they worked to pull them from the plane.
"I remember thinking, 'I'm about to die! This is it!' And then I wondered what's it going to feel like," Dr. Mark Helpenstell of Nampa told the Associated Press.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that the pilot neglected to de-ice the wings for a second time. The pilot was not authorized to land that type of aircraft in that type of condition. The co-pilot on the flight had never flown that aircraft type in snow, and had less than 26 hours of total experience with a DC-9. Continental Airlines instituted changes to procedure to boost experience levels of pilots.
Many of those killed on the flight were from the greater Boise area, including 35-year-old Nick Ysursa. The football field at Bishop Kelly High School was named in Ysursa's honor after the crash. An infant was also among those killed.
A Melba High School FFA group was also on board. Former Ada County Commissioner Judy Peavey was supposed to be on the plane, but missed the flight.
Among the 54 survivors on board, many suffered injuries. Twenty-four passengers had minor injuries, and another suffered major injuries - including paralysis.
Families gathered at the Boise Airport and waited in a room at the old terminal to await news.
