continental airlines flight 55
cvr 000725 - Plane Crash Info Continental Airlines flight 1760 was a scheduled domestic service that originated at the enormous George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas. The plane did not gain enough airspeed with the three remaining engines as damage to the landing gear bay door prevented the retraction of the undercarriage. But in a narrower sense, we refers to myself and Gordon Bethune, Continentals chairman and CEO. They may want food at 2:00 p.m., but they wont pay for it. The flight engineer shut down engine number two at only 25 feet altitude. Throwback: The Continental Airlines Flight That Landed At The Wrong Airport Many companies in crisis mode will change the CEO or president and leave it at that. Continental Aviation. We provide accurate real time flight status like arrivals, departures as well as delay time of all Continental Airlines flights. Our message was this: Continental is your company to make great. ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 707-124 N70775 El Paso International List of Continental Airlines destinations, Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport, Rio de Janeiro/Galeo International Airport, So Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, Arturo Merino Bentez International Airport, Alfonso Bonilla Aragn International Airport, Jos Joaqun de Olmedo International Airport, Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Ramn Villeda Morales International Airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Licenciado Gustavo Daz Ordaz International Airport, Josep Tarradellas BarcelonaEl Prat Airport, BirminghamShuttlesworth International Airport, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport, HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, BaltimoreWashington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport, Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, CasperNatrona County International Airport, 1955 MacArthur Airport United Airlines crash, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Continental_Airlines_destinations&oldid=1133996164, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with failed verification from February 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 January 2023, at 14:02. The government definition refers to airlines with over $1 billion in annual revenues. Moreover, I had taken the financial relocation package called for in the contract and doubled it. In my six-odd years of working on turnarounds at Bain, I had never seen a company as dysfunctional as Continental. Flight #. Although I was a frequent flier with literally millions of miles racked up on other airlines, I had always avoided Continental because of its reputation for lousy service. The jet crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse two minutes after takeoff. Im from a little farming town in Kansas where hard work is a way of life. By the end of the call, however, they were usually appreciative that an officer of the company had taken the time to seek them out. That was a good thing, because we were in a big mess togetherbigger than either of us knew at first. When we took off at last50 minutes latethe accumulated condensation flowed like a waterfall along the top of the baggage bins to the back of the airplane. Sure, its bound to make the shareholders very unhappy, but hiding the fact that you are about to run out of money is like resetting the fuel gauge when youre low on gas. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis get it back on track. You can also look out for credit cards that allow you perks like free First Class lounge visits. [6], At the start of the takeoff, the aircraft had 1.2 tonnes of extra fuel which should have been burnt during the aircraft's taxi. Dynasty Flyer is the airline's frequent flyer program. They told the pilots that they should feel lucky that Continental finally had a senior management team that treated them with enough respect to deliver the bad newsas well as a good relocation packagein person. Even though the turnaround is over, we wont forget the lessons we learned from it. [3]:17 A large plume of flame developed, and the flight engineer shut down engine 2 in response to a fire warning and the captain's command. Yes. I said I was surprised; we had just finished negotiating the first pilots contract in 12 years, and it had been ratified by a large margin. [48][51][52] It was alleged that Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen knew that the plane's fuel tanks could be susceptible to damage from foreign objects, but nonetheless allowed it to fly. The historical norm for delivering bad news at Continental was for a senior manager to dump the news in the local airport managers lap and then hide in our corporate office building. [6][36][37], In November 1981, the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a letter of concern to the French BEA that included safety recommendations for Concorde. But those fixes were like trying to bail out the Titanic with a coffee can. [10][17] They included German football manager Rudi Fanacht and German trade union board member Christian Gtz. Here are the lowest-priced Continental Airlines flight tickets from hundreds of providers. Live Continental Aviation Flight Status - FlightAware The aircraft was overloaded by 810 kilograms (1,790lb) above the maximum safe takeoff weight. How? This facility was a key hub for Continental Airlines at the time, and it continues to be so today for its successor, United Airlines. Above all else, Brenneman explains in this HBR interview, it was common sense and simple logic. Will our distributors sell our product? I never denied that Continental had been a terrible airline. [42] Just before service resumed, the September 11 attacks took place, resulting in a marked drop in passenger numbers, and contributing to the eventual end of Concorde flights. Presto, now people were in control of their own destiny, and the finger-pointing stopped. We needed to get people to their destinations on time with their bags. The list also includes destinations that Continental Airlines no longer served by the time of its integration. You're even able to watch specific Continental Airlines flights. "it was Fly.com that found the best bargain". Gordon had just left a cushy job, or at least one where he could sleep soundly at night, at the Boeing Company to become president and COO of Continental. FACTUAL INFORMATION 1.1 History of Flight On February 19, 1996, at 0902 central standard time,1 Continental Airlines (COA) flight 1943, a Douglas DC-9-32, N10556, landed wheels up on runway 27 at the Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas. The first is to beg forgiveness from all the customers you have wronged. In a turnaround situationor any business situation, for that matteryou cant afford to ask anything else. We made payroll on January 17 with the help of a $29 million wire transfer Gordon arranged from Boeing. All 45 on board died. [31], Former British Airways (BA) Concorde captain John Hutchinson, said the fire on its own should have been 'eminently survivable; the pilot should have been able to fly his way out of trouble'. That ticked them off (to put it in language this publication will permit), which caused further reductions in service. In fact, sometimes when I talk to people about the lessons the turnaround taught us, they say, Well, Greg, those seem simple enough. Relying mostly on our own experience as business travelers, we knew that the customer in seat 9C would pay extra for a few things: airplanes and terminals that are safe, comfortable, and attractive; on-time flights and reliable baggage handling; and good food at mealtimes. Without it, all your great plans to have a product you are proud of and people who like coming to work every day are meaningless. So I tell this story not to vilify them but to demonstrate the kind of trust that starts to emerge when a companys leaders neither hide nor mince words in bad times. Cheap Roundtrip Fares to Amsterdam from: (per person, including taxes and fees). A single creditor could have blocked our restructuring. July 1993: Tyre burst on a BA plane during landing at Heathrow, causing substantial ingestion damage to the number 3 engine, damaging the landing gear and wing, and puncturing an empty fuel tank. I truly believed the men and women of Continental could make the airline great again. Join the millions of customers that have used Fly.com to find cheap plane tickets. They could see senior management finally taking the actions they knew had been needed for years. Compare Continental Airlines flight deals from all across the web. Strategic clarity is particularly important when time and financial resources are limited. Power was lost to the No. Roundtrip One way Multi-city. The gentleman sitting next to me looked at me and said, Isnt it great that Continental is getting all these new airplanes? I just smiled. But Continental had been cutting costs in ways that sabotaged its product. Continental Airlines Flight 55 - Takeoff Animation - YouTube To involve our employees even more in the turnaround, we put up 650 bulletin boards throughout the system. Fare Calendars show the best prices over the next 180 days on 2000+ routes. But if we could get every employee headed in the same direction, we had a chance. If it's cheaper to travel to/from a nearby airport, we'll alert you. [10][11][12][13] A video of the burning plane on takeoff and the aftermath of the crash was captured by a passing driver. It is the flag carrier of Republic of China with its headquarters in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County. It was pure common sense. Because it is critical to get everyone working together, we aligned employees compensation with the companys objectives. [8]:3337 The fire damaged the inner elevon of the left wing and it began to disintegrate,[3]:164[9] melted by the extremely high temperatures. Sure, we were able to fix some problems, such as an incredibly slow reservations system and a substandard customer-response policy. We organized our solutions to those problems into a strategy that we called the Go Forward Plan. Then again, the patient is cured now, right? Frankly, Id rather be working than not any day of the week. It returned to service on November 7, 2001, following the implementation of various modifications to the airframe, but to limited commercial success. In October 1994, Continentals CEO resigned. Leaders must find the most leveraged plan of action, stick with it, and continually monitor the companys performance against it. Tyre fragments, flung by the rapidly spinning wheel, violently struck the underside of the wing, damaging parts of the landing gear thus preventing its retraction and causing the integral fuel tank to rupture. November 1985: Tyre burst on a BA plane leaving Heathrow, causing damage to the landing gear door and fuel tank. We didnt say to the patientif you can call a dying company thatNow, just hold on a while so we can run a lot of tests and then perhaps perform an extremely delicate 12-hour procedure. No, we just took out the scalpel and went to work. Please support this channel by following me on Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/allecibayOn July 1, 1965 Continental Airlines Flight 12 overran the runway whil. In fact, I think the word fun scares a lot of executives. In-Service Fleets carrying 89 aircraft, including 71 Passenger Jets/ 18 Freighters. Track Flight. Of course, wed be fools if all we did was talk at our employees. Fund the Future was the financial plan: we were going to gain liquidity by restructuring our balance sheet and selling off nonstrategic assets. There were 37 injuries among the passengers and crew, and no fatalities. Home. Continental Airlines - Cheap Flights - Fly.com . We just had to get in there and do it. Deciding to focus more on customers desires rather than on cutting costs is actually the easy part. To monitor our performance in the marketplace, we decided to track our monthly load factor, revenue per available seat mile, and quarterly cost and profit margins. You bet. Continental was a case in point. These boards contain everything an employee needs to know about the company, from a daily news update to Continentals operating results over the last 24 hours. Strategic direction is never more crucial than during a crisis. Taylor was given a 15-month suspended sentence, while Ford, Perrier, Hrubel, and Frantzen were cleared of all charges. Who wouldnt after flying on the old Continental? I took them through the current situation, what we were doing to fix it, and the help we needed from them. We have taken more than 200 calls per week in the three years the hotline has been open. There was nothing complex about the Go Forward Plan: it was just a matter of logic and common sense. The program didnt cost anything, but it added value to the customer. The support you get from each employees family when they become part of the team is incredible. Gone are the days when Continental put the meat, potato, and vegetable in a little ceramic dish and heated it until they all tasted the same. I was thinking, Greg, this is one of those times in life when you step up to the plate or you chicken out. I had spent the last six years making recommendations that my clients sometimes took and sometimes ignored. To put an end to Continentals strategic wandering, Gordon and I introduced the Go Forward Plan to our coworkers. When they are constants in a business, people become engaged in their work. We decided that at the new Continental, the employees were going to be liberated to do right by the customer and to have fun at work. Actively involving employees in the turnaround is essential. The passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador. Analysis of test results revealed the level of kinetic energy necessary to cause the rupture of fuel tank. Greg, I was told, You have just proven you dont know anything about the airline business. and, Are we taking care of our best customers? Instead, managers who have gotten a company into a mess are usually mired in a puddle of overbrained solutions. We agreed that a healthy culture is simply a function of several factors, namely: honesty, trust, dignity, and respect. Join more than 3 million seasoned travelers using Fly.com every month to find the best airfare deals. Our goal was not only to apologize but also to explain what we were doing to fix the company. . But both David Bonderman of Air Partners (the LBO firm that owned the airline) and Gordon were pushing me to join. Oh sure, people paid lip service to strategy. The airline was part of Skyteam and Star Alliance with frequent flyer program name Onepass. A wheels-up landing was made in a wheat field. The crew reduced the power on engines three and four in an attempt to level the aircraft, but they lost control due to deceleration and the aircraft stalled. They all go together; they reinforce one another. Continental Airlines Flight 1404 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Continental Airlines Flight 1404 was a Continental Airlines flight from Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. The problem was exacerbated on the left gear's three remaining tyres by the uneven fuel load. Gordon and I met in February 1994. [3]:115, The accident led to modifications to Concorde, including more-secure electrical controls, Kevlar lining to the fuel tanks, and specially developed burst-resistant tyres. [34] The additional weight of the extra fuel in tank 11, the rearmost tank, plus the additional luggage shifted the aircraft's centre of gravity rearwards, to beyond the safe operating limit of 54 per cent, set by the Concorde test pilots. [43] Air France stopped flights in May 2003, followed by British Airways five months later. They got us into this hole, the thinking goes, how are they going to have the sense to get us out of it? In fact, when we went before the board, we told them Continental could earn about $40 million in 1995. They fear they will be next. Time is tight; money is tighter. A pilot came to the microphone to express how incompetent he felt management was and how Continental was once again making the wrong decision. Make sure you know the difference. 055 to Newark. It is offensive and insulting to customers to advertise a product that they know is crummy. Our maintenance team worked their fannies off, and Continentals handsome new image was everywhere. Get complete Continental Airlines flight status online at flightpedia.org. As near as I can tell, if you take the share price times the number of shares outstanding, this entire company is worth $175 million and you are in hock for $3.5 billion. At one point, it drifted toward a just-landed Air France Boeing 747 that was carrying then-French President Jacques Chirac (who was returning from the 26th G8 summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan). Visit Fly.com to know about some amazing deals on Continental Airlines. EVA Air is the airline's main competitor. Incentives were now aligned; when the customers won, the employees did, too. Our customers loved Continentals new look. Section 1.16.7.3 "The Fuel in Tank 5" (page 118): "Taking into account these calculations, we may consider that the quantity of fuel in tank 5 was practically that which was loaded on the apron, which represents around 94% of the total volume of the tank". The mechanic's failure to maintain proper clearance with the engine intake during a jet engine run, and the failure of contract maintenance personnel to follow written procedures and directives contained in the airline's general maintenance manual. When we met, he said that the Greensboro pilots were not angry that we were closing the airportthey could see that there were no customers on the flights. [41], The crash of the Air France Concorde nonetheless proved to be the beginning of the end for the type. With little time and even less money to save the airline in 1994, Continentals leaders devised the Go Forward Plan, a four-part strategy focused on the fundamentals. Over several bottles of wine, we wrote down everything that was wrong with Continental. And we wanted it all done in six months. Clean house. Nineteen items of luggage, weighing some 500kg (0.5 tonnes) were loaded onto the aircraft at the last minute without being included in the aircraft's manifest, giving the aircraft a weight of 186 tonnes, which exceeded the aircraft's certified maximum structural weight by one tonne. [3]:166[BEA 1], Air traffic controller Gilles Logelin noticed the flames before the Concorde was airborne and informed the flight crew. New data released by Ipsos this morning has shown that around 55% of Britons expect the Tories to lose seats on Thursday, with 45% expecting Labour to pick up support. A couple of weeks after I arrived, I was walking the ramp in Houston saying hello to our mechanics and baggage handlers, and helping to throw a bag or two, when I noticed that almost all the employees had torn the Continental logos from their shirts. [45], French authorities began a criminal investigation of Continental Airlines, whose plane dropped the debris on the runway, in March 2005,[46] and that September, Henri Perrier, the former chief engineer of the Concorde division at Arospatiale at the time of the first test flight in 1969 and the programme director in the 1980s and early 1990s, was placed under formal investigation. First, they had to pass what we called the raw IQ testthere is no substitute for smarts. In fact, if employees arent having fun at workthat is, if they arent engaged in the process and treated with respectyour turnaround will not succeed. When we took over, you probably couldnt find a single employee, even among senior management, who could tell you the companys strategy. And then fun happens pretty naturally. [26] Commercial service was resumed on November 7, 2001, after a 17M (24M today) safety improvement programme, until the type was retired between May (Air France) and October (British Airways), 2003. It was a hot, humid day in May 1993. get people to their destinations on time and with their bags . We search Expedia, Orbitz and others for packages that can save you even more. Continental was losing an incredible amount of money and, more important, burning through cash at an astonishing rate. Departure time came and went, and people continued to trickle on board for another 40 minutes. I wasnt sure if I should celebrate or commiserate with my colleagues. That made our customers late and angry and ruined the lives of our employees who had to work overtime because of tardy arrivals. Since reaccommodation expenses showed up in a contra-revenue account rather than as a cost on the general ledger, they escaped the eyes of the cost reduction program. They were too busy trying to knock each other off. [28][35] As the plane was about to leave the tarmac, with the aircraft rotated for takeoff at a speed of only 188 knots, 11 knots under the minimum recommended velocity. Along with explaining the details of the closing and relocation plans, I also shared with them my vision for Continental and how far we had come. When I discovered Continentals real cash situation, I called Gordon. Ask the customer in seat 9C the right question. Four dogs back, the look and smell stays the same. Naturally, our cash-flow forecasts always came in lower than projected because revenue (and thus, credit card receipts) was overstated. It is his or her responsibility to visit the city once per quarter to update employees, get their feedback, and fix their problems. In Continentals case, we simply needed to fly to places people wanted to go, when they wanted to go, in clean, attractive airplanes; get them there on time with their bags; and serve food at mealtimes. By the fall of 1994, Continental had blown much of the $766 million in cash that it had when it emerged from bankruptcy in April 1993. Worse, no one had hooked up the planes air-conditioning. Or choose Cookie preferences to customise your settings and opt out of all or some non-essential cookies. Continental Airlines has undergone a dramatic and profitable turnaround in the past several years. Theyve seen their friends get fired. I have never seen the team that managed a company into a crisis be able to get it back on track. Fly to Win was the airlines marketplace plan; Fund the Future was the financial plan; Make Reliability a Reality was the formula to improve the product; and Working Together was the blueprint for improving the companys culture. Finally, each corporate officer is assigned a city on the system. Not mollified, the union president asked me to come to a meeting the pilots were having before my meeting with the entire airport staff. For instance, in the early 1990s, pilots earned bonuses if the fuel burn rate on their airplanes fell below a specified amount. Contact Details. You have to do it fast, right away, and all at once. They are required to research each suggestion and get back to the employee within 48 hours with one of three responses: we fixed it; we are not going to fix it, and here is why; or, we need to study it a little more, and we will get back to you by such and such date. Continental Airlines was an American airline headquartered in Houston, Texas. You will see the word we a lot as you read this article. In my opinion, that approach is like changing only the lead husky on a sled-dog team. All airlines. July 25, 2000. 4. In our business, revenue comes from credit card receipts. Once the damaged forward tank 5 began to lose fuel, the centre of gravity moved even further rearward. In me, Gordon found a frustrated consultant who bristled at the slow pace of change in most companies. We promised them full control of their domains. Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental When I asked one mechanic why he had done this, he explained, When I go to Wal-Mart tonight, I dont want anyone to know that I work for Continental. His response still sends chills down my spine. "Pilot: "No time, no (unclear). We also started an aircraft appearance department to make sure our airplanes would continue to look great day after day. This communiqu was the result of the NTSB's investigations of four Air France Concorde incidents during a 20-month period from July 1979 to February 1981. The official investigation was conducted by France's accident investigation bureau, the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA). We also immediately started fixing our idiotic food policy. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. It was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history. At takeoff, the DC-10 overran the runway at Los Angeles (LAX) when the takeoff was aborted as a result of a tire explosion; the resulting overrun resulted in a fire that engulfed the aircraft. For instance, wed ask the number two person in pricing at another airline to come run our pricing department. . Thats where our focus was, and its a good rule for any turnaround. The Sabreliner descended from 1,000 feet (300 m), struck the ground, and was destroyed. By focusing only on costs, the airline had created a product no one wanted to buy. There had been so many over the past decade that theyd stopped keeping track. The offer sounds pretty bold for a company almost in bankruptcy, doesnt it? Confession is good for everyones soul, and often for the pocketbook as well. Ill never know what possessed me to say that. In the past, any time an employee provided a benefit for a customer that was considered unacceptable, the bankers and lawyers running Continental would write a rule documenting the proper action. Make Reliability a Reality was the product plan: we were going to transform the customers experience with us. The company had gone through ten presidents in ten years, so standard operating procedure was to do nothing while awaiting new management. Ask the customer the right question. Please select OK to allow all cookies. [53], The trial ran in a Parisian court from February to December 2010. [24][25] According to Jock Lowe, a Concorde pilot, until the crash of Air France Flight 4590 at Paris, the British Airways Concorde operation made a net average profit of about 30M (equivalent to 44M in 2019) a year. After bringing Bob and Audrey Six to their Colorado ranch, the Sabreliner crew departed MTJ, for the return flight to Los Angeles (LAX). [33][50], At the same time, charges were laid against Henri Perrier, head of the Concorde program at Arospatiale, Jacques Hrubel, Concorde's chief engineer, and Claude Frantzen, head of DGAC, the French airline regulator. The third step in breaking the doom loop was to cut our advertising budget in half. We knew that the two of us could not save Continental on our own. Believe it or not, at this point I still wasnt on Continentals payroll. We had a week to put together a turnaround plan for Continental and develop a pitch to the board to name Gordon the CEO. We've compared every online travel agent out there to find the cheapest flight tickets on the net. At the same time, we chose 15 or so key performance measures to track relentlessly and to compare against our competitors. Pretty soon, we were unstoppable. Again, we heard our share of shoutingthere was a lot of venom out there. [38], Because it is a tailless delta-wing aircraft, Concorde could not use the normal flaps or slats to assist takeoff and landing, and required a significantly higher air and tyre speed during the takeoff roll than an average airliner.
continental airlines flight 55