ztherun4.gif (5883 bytes)

Denver Crash
Winter Weather Hampers Rescue

Volume VII, Number 47             November 30, 1987
It was the first major crash in Denver in 25 years.
A Continental jet trying to take off on a snowy runway at Stapleton Airport flipped over and broke apart, killing at least 28 and injuring 54.
Many of the passengers were trapped inside the wreckage. It was a massive rescue operation and trauma centers were swamped with victims.
The blizzard-like conditions which may have contributed to the accident made coverage particularly difficult.
Temperatures were
below freezing		 When the crash occurred, the temperature was about 28 degrees with a  wind chill of about 10 degrees. And, as the day wore on, the temperature kept dropping.
"Had the plane not crashed, the weather would have been the lead story on that day. It was snowing all day and there were 4 or 5 inches on the ground," said Butch Montoya, News Director KUSA-TV.

"We had crews on the runway in frigid temperatures in a snowstorm for 10 hours and there was little we could do to relieve them," said Marv Rockford, KCNC News Director.

"When you're out in that kind of weather for hours at a time, nothing keeps you warm enough. Just getting to the location was difficult because of the condition the roads," added KMGH Executive Producer Garry Kelly.

Ambulances had trouble getting in and a couple of them even got stuck.

"It was absolutely miserable at the scene. There was a very large puddle which people kept stepping in and would go up to their ankles or knees in cold mud, rain and snow," said Montoya.
"Those are the conditions which rescuers and news people had to work under and they are to be commended," he added.
News crews were initially barred from scene The crash site itself could be concealed from the photographers and reporters.
"It was inside some fences, and officials stopped everybody at the fences," Kelly said.  In fact, it was several hours before newspeople were allowed on the scene.

"The first reports were basically from a fence where you could see very little except the ambulances coming and going," Kelly recalled.
It was a different story at hospitals. Denver had several trauma centers, including the biggest at Denver General Hospital. Newsroom managers immediately sent crews to the trauma centers and saw many of the injured arriving.
"We were at Denver General when a bus arrived carrying 22 people!" said Kelly.
Early information
may not be accurate		 Montoya said it was particularly important to be accurate when releasing information on death counts and to confirm all reports.
Police, fire, emergency and airport sources were developing fragmentary information throughout the early hours. They are constantly learning more and more about the disaster.

The numbers changed rapidly.
"We heard there were 12 killed and  then that 17 had died. Then we heard all of them had been killed," said Montoya.
"But, we didn't use that information without verifying it," he stresses.

Nobody knew how many people were killed because many were still trapped in the aircraft.
"We had to roll with the punches. There were no exact figures and we couldn't expect to say an exact number of people had died, because there were many survivors," he explained.
Montoya said it wasn't long before the Public Information officers for the Denver Police and the airport were organized and began releasing the  information which stations needed to pass along to the public, particularly people who might have a relative or friend on the flight.
"They were cooperative even though it was a stressful situation," he said.
Crews showed sensitivity Although the crash happened on a Sunday afternoon, the stations were able to mobilize quickly.
"To mobilize three ENG trucks and one satellite truck is a major undertaking. But everybody responded quickly.  There was a sense while it was a big story, we had to be careful and compassionate," said Montoya.
A television columnist called and asked the KUSA executive what edict he had put out so there were no gory pictures on TV.
"It was after our 5 o'clock show and I told her that up to that point I hadn't had to put out any edict or give any orders.  I didn't have to warn people about gory pictures because it wasn't necessary. I was truly impressed with the professionalism of the staff," he said.

KUSA aired cut-ins throughout the afternoon.
"As it got closer to news time we had more and more information and tape from the hospitals," he said. They went live from about 4:15 throughout their 5 p.m. show.
The station has made counseling available for any staffer who feels he needs it.
"We will treat it confidentially and it's is between them and the counselor," said Montoya. He felt it was important for the station to provide it.
"Some of our people were out there and saw the body bags and the victims. If they need to talk to someone about it, I think it's important for the station to provide someone," he said.
Need for a disaster plan KCNC's Rockford said the crash had reinforced with them the need to have a stationwide disaster plan.

"We'd declare a Red Alert or state of emergency for the station," he explained. That tells staffers everybody in the station needs to get involved in the effort --- including department heads reporting to work.
"They need to help manage on the program side what we're going to do about sliding programing or pre-empting it," Rockford said.
For example, KCNC had two sports programs to be taped during the hours of 7 to 10 p.m..
"Clearly, we could not tape those programs while we were trying to do all the studio interrupts," Rockford pointed out.

Because of the chaos that ensues in this kind of big, breaking story, Rockford said from an operational point of view, having some kind of plan allows you to establish some areas of responsibility and lines of communications.
"Communication doesn't just make it on the air," Rockford said.
There were three or four people on the assignment desk who were just making phone calls. Who organized that information? Who made sure it got out to the crews in the field? Who made sure it got on the air? And, who was double-checking it before it went on the air? Who was responsible for watching the wires and making sure it was distributed to the producers and assignment desk?

"Those appear to be simple considerations, but unless you have those areas of responsibility determined ahead of time, you're well into the opening stages of your disaster coverage before you get around to establishing that kind of organization," he suggested.
He said you want to avoid floundering for the first half-hour or hour.  It's a critical time because it often establishes who will dominate the story.

When is it enough? "You can't staff a story like this well enough.  We could have used even more people," said KMGH's  Kelly.

It wasn't over after the first day.
"The next day was just as bad as the first because every station in the country was calling wanting live reports," Kelly said.
KMGH managers coordinated through CBS and dedicated a reporter and crew just to fill requests from out-of-town.

Kelly said there were several hundred phone calls following the crash from people objecting to the cut-ins, saying they'd heard enough about it and didn't want to hear anymore until the late news.
"They said it was such a downer, they didn't want to hear any more about it," said Kelly.
Return to RUNDOWN Database Search

Return to TV RUNDOWN on The Web home page

Copyright 1987, 2000, Standish Publishing Company.  This material is for your personal use as a subscriber, and may not be reproduced or transmitted to other parties of any kind.