1991 — March 3, United Airlines Flight 585 Boeing 737 Crash, Colorado Springs, CO– 25

— 25  NTSB. AAR. Uncontrolled Descent…Collision with Terrain, United…CO Springs CO. ix.

— 25  New York Times. “Jetliner Crash in Colorado Kills All 25 People Aboard.” 3-4-1991.

Narrative Information

NTSB Executive Summary: “On March 3, 1991, a United Airlines Boeing 737, registration number N999UA, operating as flight 585, was on a scheduled passenger flight from Denver, Colorado, to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time, and the flight was on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Numerous witnesses reported that shortly after completing its turn onto the final approach course to runway 35 at Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, about 0944 mountain standard time, the airplane rolled steadily to the right and pitched nose down until it reached a nearly vertical attitude before hitting the ground in an area known as Widefield Park. The airplane was destroyed, and the 2 flight crewmembers, 3 flight attendants, and 20 passengers aboard were fatally injured.

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the United Airlines flight 585 accident was a loss of control of the airplane resulting from the movement of the rudder surface to its blowdown limit. The rudder surface most likely deflected in a direction opposite to that commanded by the pilots as a result of a jam of the main rudder power control unit servo valve secondary slide to the servo valve housing offset from its neutral position and overtravel of the primary slide.” (NTSB. AAR. Uncontrolled Descent and Collision with Terrain, United Airlines Flight 585, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 3, 1991. Dec 1992, p. xv.)

NYT: “Colorado Springs, March 3 — A United Airlines 737 jet bound for the airport here crashed nose first into a neighborhood park this morning, killing all 25 people aboard. The plane just missed an 250-unit apartment complex and a housing development on either side, and no one on the ground was seriously injured….

“Flight 585, a nine-year-old Boeing 737-200, was on its way to Colorado Springs from Denver, after originating in Peoria, Ill. It exploded in flames after smashing into the park, about four miles south of the airport, in the unincorporated community of Widefield….”

Sources

National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. Uncontrolled Descent and Collision with Terrain, United Airlines Flight 585, Boeing 737-200, N999UA, 4 Miles South of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, Colorado Springs, Colorado, March 3, 1991 (NTSB AAR-01/01; NTIS PB2001-910401). Washington, DC: NTSB, Adopted December 1992. Accessed 4-28-2016 at: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAR0101.pdf

New York Times (Dirk Johnson). “Jetliner Crash in Colorado Kills All 25 People Aboard.” 3-4-1991. Accessed 4-28-2016 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/04/us/jetliner-crash-in-colorado-kills-all-25-people-aboard.html