I have only one reason to pay attention to
this plane crash. My Southwest flight arrived at Denver at 6:12 on
Saturday evening and the Continental flight to Texas that crashed on an
aborted takeoff started moving at 6:16. It ran off the runway a few
minutes later probably going 80 mph.
Our flight arrived under clear skies, about 19 degrees Fahrenheit, no ice on the runways, into the wind on runway 26. Runway 26 would be pointing West at 260 degrees. The 737 Continental was taking off on runway 34. We landed into the wind so the Continental must have had a cross-wind but it didn't plow off the runway away from the wind...it went into the wind.
I have no inside information on the crash. Why the pilot aborted is any one's guess. My guess is that after the decision was made to abort, the brakes were the problem. If the take-off had been into the wind on runway 25, the left side of the runway would not have been so catastrophic. The same is true for runway 35 which was being used for landings at the time.
We left the airport as ambulances were streaming in.