Surprises in aviation are rarely pleasant, and that’s what a couple of Continental Airline pilots got in late 2008 when they taxied for departure from Denver International Airport (DEN) with the tower reporting winds of 11 kt, 70 degrees off the nose. No one, absolutely no one who flies aircraft with hard sides, hears danger alarms when the wind is 11 kt, even when it’s a direct crosswind. When, as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports, the local controller upped the ante to 27 kt when issuing the takeoff clearance, even that fell short of being a critical issue.
If, however, the pilots had known that control tower displays were showing a 35-kt wind with 40-kt gusts, then one would expect at least a “wait a minute” moment and further consideration of conditions. But they didn’t know, and the peak gusts actually were more like 45 kt, and the aircraft departed the runway.
Frankly, at first blush, this data gap sounds like the kind of safety-of-flight in…
