DENVER -- Passengers expecting a flight to Texas instead had to flee their burning airliner, sprawled in a smoke-filled ravine off a runway with the fuselage partially buckled and one engine and part of its landing gear ripped off.

The entire right side of the Boeing 737 was burned and melted plastic from overhead compartments dripped onto the seats below.

Denver Fire Department Division Chief Patrick Hynes called the scene "surreal."

Thirty-eight people suffered injuries including broken bones, and one was in critical condition with fractures after the Saturday evening accident at Denver International Airport, officials said. Five people remained in local hospitals Sunday afternoon.

Many of the injuries were the result of an emergency exit chute on the left side of the plane, which was about 6 feet short of the ground, according to people who talked to Call 7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski. Passengers were rapidly sliding down the chute, but when the reached the end of it, they fell another six feet before hitting the ground. There were many broken bones and bruises as a result of the escape.

The 110 passengers and five crew members made it out on emergency slides, and firefighters extinguished the flames quickly, said airport spokesman Jeff Green.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The weather was cold but not snowy when Continental Flight 1404 took off on a flight to Houston around 6:20 p.m.

The plane veered off course about 4,200 feet down runway 34 right and went off the left side of the runway into a 40-foot deep ravine.

Runway 34 right remained closed Sunday and likely would stay closed until the wreckage could be moved, said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Robert Sumwalt.

A team of 15 investigators from the NTSB has arrived and will begin collecting "perishable evidence" from the crash site Monday, he said. Then investigators will begin trying to determine a cause of the crash. That process could take up to a year.

Both the cockpit voice recorders and the flight data recorder have been recovered and are on their way to Washington, D.C., for review, Sumwalt said. "Both are in good condition," he said.

"The aircraft is essentially intact," Sumwalt said, however the left engine has been torn off and a large crack can be seen running from wing to wing across the fuselage. Both main gears were torn off and the nose gear may have ripped off as well," he said.

"It is typical that the wreckage will be moved as quickly as possible but that may be a couple of days," Sumwalt said.

The NTSB will hold a second news conference Monday to provide any updates in their investigation.

Source: Investigators To Look Closely At Wind Shear

A source close to the initial investigation who spoke to Kovaleski said investigators are looking very closely at wind shear and a potential gust of wind as the cause of the plane crash.

"At this stage in the investigation, wind shear or a large guest of wind are the most probable causes of the crash," the source, who refused to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publically about the investigation, told Kovaleski.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board, who arrived around midnight, will be inspecting instruments at the airport that measure wind shear as part of their investigation.

The flight manual for a 737-500 says the maximum recommended crosswind component for the aircraft is 40 knots or about 46 miles per hour. Airport officials said the crosswind was about 30 knots at the time of the crash.

Two passengers who are from northern Colorado, and were on the way to Houston for the holidays, said they were sitting on the left side of the plane when they felt a wind gust move them off the runway, causing the plane to bank heavily to the right and forcing the right wing to hit the ground.

"All of the sudden, the plane just turned sideways," said one passenger, who asked not to be identified. "We were going down the runway and it was just ... it was like we were in the air and then we weren't."

"They had a very stiff crosswind tonight -- 31 knots -- that's pretty stiff. Taking off in an aircraft, it can give you the feeling that the airplane is actually flying. The plane is starting to ride real light on the struts, so people may have thought they were flying, when in actuality the airplane was still on the ground," said Greg Feith a former NTSB Investigator.

"It could have been more catastrophic if that had happened in flight," he said.

Passengers Describe Frightening Sight -- Fire

"I closed my eyes, started to doze off ... and we started getting up to speed, and right about the time I thought the plane should be starting to take off ... we started to turn. I opened my eyes and looked down out of the window, and we were still on the ground. We hit a bump, took flight for a little bit, everybody in the cabin started screaming a little bit, and we hit another bump," said Alex Zamora, who was onboard the flight.

He said he was sitting in the eighth row, which he said was right over the engine that caught fire and that's all he could see.

"This was crash No. 2 for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus." - Mike Wilson, Boulder

"At some point, the engine that was to my right seemed to blow up. I could see the fire out of the windows and we were still making forward progress. We hit something and stopped," Zamora said. "Someone went to open the emergency door on my side, but someone stopped him because obviously there was fire just outside the door."

Zamora said he was sitting in the emergency exit row on the right side of the plane but they couldn't exit that way.

"They got the emergency door open on the other side. We all piled out ... There was already smoke in the cabin and people were jumping over seats. People in the front and rear had exits, but the people in the middle only had one exit because of the fire on my side. At first, everyone was pushing and shoving, the wing was smashed on the side where we're exiting and everyone was falling a little but most of us got out OK," Zamora said. "After we all piled out, we started to run up to a hill towards an emergency building that houses fire trucks."

Zamora said he has a couple bruises and a couple cuts on his hand but there were some people reporting back pain and neck pain.

Other passengers talked about how there was a shared sense of camaraderie and relief after the incident, with high-fives going around as they waited in the terminal to be processed.

Boulder resident Mike Wilson was onboard the flight and has been twittering ever since the crash.

"My glasses fell off in the mass exodus getting off the plane," Wilson wrote. "Can't see very well."

Wilson said he was taken to the Continental president's club at the airport "until they can sort everything out."

Wilson, who goes by the screen name 2drinksbehind, said, "You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can't even get a vodka tonic. Boo."

He seems to be dealing with the crash with some humor.

"This was crash No. 2 for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus," he wrote.

Andrew Lefkiw, who was supposed to be on the flight, said his shuttle from Telluride was delayed so he missed the flight. His friend, however, was on the flight and was being treated for smoke inhalation. Lefkiw said his friend described how luggage from the overhead compartment fell on them as the interior shelf started melting due to the heat from the fire.

Firefighters Describe Surreal Sight

When firefighters arrived minutes after the crash they had a difficult time narrowing down exactly where the plane ended up, said Denver Fire Chief Patrick Hynes.

"They described a surreal scene. Heavy fire on the right side of the aircraft, all chutes deployed, from both sides of the aircraft, people evacuating and walking up the hillside toward them," Hynes said. "Much like a movie, some people coming out of the smoke and up the hill."

Hynes said the fire burned the entire right side of the plane but the plane remains intact. Melted plastic from the overhead compartments dripped onto the seats down below, he said.

"We were able to extinguish the fire rather quickly. It was described as a heck of a firefight from the commanding officer. He was very proud of how his crews reacted, and the outcome of this incident," Hynes said.

Debris remained on the runway, with the plane about 200 yards away. The plane will remain in the ravine until investigators have cleared the site. Airport officials are expected to bus media crews out to the site.

Five of the six airport's six runways had been reopened by late Sunday morning and airport officials didn't expect any delays related to airport operations, said airport spokesman Jeff Green.

Do you know someone who was on this flight? Or who has pictures or video of what happened? Please contact us and e-mail MyReport@TheDenverchannel.com.

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