Continental Flight 1404 Skids off Denver Runway

At the time this interview aired, investigators were trying to figure out what caused the Boeing jet to skid off the runway.

Greaves speaks with Fox News about his experience as a former airline captain. Mr. Greaves said, “when an aircraft is taking off, there is a decision speed called V1- velocity one - and that is the decision point where the captain has to decide whether he is going to continue with the takeoff or whether he is going to abort the takeoff. And it appears in this instance that something happened at about a hundred miles an hour, maybe a little more. There was a big thump and then the aircraft continued to accelerate to 137 miles an hour when it departed the runway and that’s getting close to that V1 speed.” Mr. Greaves went on to say, “We’re trained to abort the takeoff regardless of what happens. If anything out of the ordinary shows up during the takeoff roll, before you get to the V1 speed, we’re trained to abort the takeoff. “

Air Date: December 23, 2008

Incident Date: December 20, 2008

By Wisner Baum