Jetliner Crashes Near Colorado Airport; 25 Die

A United Airlines jetliner with 25 people aboard nose-dived into a park gully and exploded Sunday as it approached the Colorado Springs airport. It narrowly missed an apartment complex and a playground.

The Boeing 737-200 was carrying 20 passengers and a crew of five, and there were no survivors, authorities said.

Darlene Dezso, a therapist, said she was walking her dog in the park when the jetliner crashed about 50 yards in front of her.

“I was walking north,” she said. “I didn’t hear any noise. All of a sudden I looked up (and) could see this huge plane coming down. The plane turned to the left and went nose down.

“I thought it was the end of my time. I heard an explosion and a lot of screaming, probably people in the neighborhood. I grabbed my dog and ran.”

Some witnesses said they thought the pilot might have flown the plane into the gully to avoid slamming into the apartment complex. Other witnesses said the jetliner clipped the roof of two buildings in the complex but that could not be confirmed.

The force of the plane’s impact triggered a huge fireball. Almost no plane parts could be identified by rescue workers.

“There are supposed to be about 100 seats in the plane and we haven’t been able to find one chair,” said El Paso County Sheriff Bernie Barry.

The crash of United Flight 585 en route from Denver occurred at approximately 9:45 a.m., four to five miles south of the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington said.

Dick Meyer, an FAA spokesman, said the pilot did not tell the airport control tower that he was experiencing any problem.

An 8-year-old girl who lived near the crash site was knocked to the ground by the force of the jet’s impact. She suffered only minor injuries.

The plane was en route to Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. It had originated in Peoria, Ill., and stopped in Moline, Ill., and Denver.

Mike Moran, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said among those on board the plane were Dr. Peter J. Van Handel, 45, a senior sports physiologist; Dr. Andrzej J. Komor, 39, a sports biochemist, and Dan Birkholtz, a cycling development coach and coordinator. Moran said all three worked for the committee and lived in Colorado Springs.

The weather was clear but there were high, gusty winds in the area at the time of the crash. The National Weather Service said winds were from the northwest at 23 m.p.h., gusting to 32 m.p.h.

Sgt. Randall Johnson, a policeman at the airport, said a commercial flight that landed earlier Sunday morning reported to the control tower that it was having “severe wind shear” problems.

However, the assistant manager of the airport, a 6,000-acre facility equipped with sophisticated equipment, declined to speculate on whether wind shear might have been a factor.

“It wasn’t overly breezy out there,” said the airport official, Bob Allison.

Don Bates, a member of the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport Advisory Board, said he did not think the weather was a major factor in the crash. “The wind today was gusty with 100 miles visibility,” he said. “It would have been a bumpy ride, but nothing that couldn’t be handled.”

The jetliner was heading for runway 35, which is 10,500 feet long at an elevation of 6,172 feet. Bates said the pilot would have been descending from an altitude of about 11,000 feet on a southbound route and then would have made a 180-degree right turn to land on the runway.

The jetliner narrowly missed a virtually empty recreation area when it crashed into the gully in Widefield Community Park. A playground was empty and one youngster was on a basketball court.

Witnesses said if the crash had occurred just a few hours later the recreation complex could have been jammed with youngsters playing on a bright, sunny Sunday.

Chris Miller, 14, was shooting baskets when the jetliner crashed. He said the crash was about 50 feet away.

“I looked up and there was a plane. . . . (The crash) just picked me up off the ground and threw me back.” He said he was hit by light debris but was not injured.

The jetliner came so close to the red brick and stucco apartment complex that at least two people who live there said they could see passengers’ faces through the plane’s windows.

“I saw people’s faces inside the plane,” said Jamin Duggan, 10. “It was upside-down.”

Another resident, Lisa McDaniels, said she also saw the plane nose-diving toward the park meadow upside-down.

Another nearby resident, Joyce Keith, a nurse, ran to the scene hoping to find someone alive. “But there was no one whole,” she said.

Perruso reported from Colorado Springs and Soble reported from Los Angeles. Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers John Johnson and Tina Anima.

Boeing 737-200

Length: 199 ft. 7 in.

Wingspan: 94 ft. 9 in.

Engines: Two turbofans mounted under wings

Range: About 2,500 miles

Passengers: 146-168

Built by: Boeing Commercial Aircraft Co., Seattle

Introduced: 1971

Source: Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft