Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 4, 1991 TAG: 9103040180
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. LENGTH: Medium
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.
The names of the victims - two pilots, three flight attendants and 20 passengers - have not been released, but the U.S. Olympic Committee, whose headquarters are in Colorado Springs, said two employees and a cycling coach were aboard.
The cause of the crash, at 9:40 a.m., is not yet known. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were to visit the scene Sunday night.
The sky was clear, but pilots reported having trouble with strong, gusty winds.
Pilots say winds are a frequent hazard at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, which sits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Powerful winds roll down the mountains, gathering force as they swoop eastward toward the plains.
The plane, a 9-year-old Boeing 737-200, was on its way to Colorado Springs from Denver, after starting out in Peoria, Ill.
It exploded in flames after smashing into the park, about four miles south of the airport, in an unincorporated area called Widefield.
Some residents of the Kokomo, the two-story apartment building nearby, said they could see horrified passengers clawing at the windows as the plane veered wildly.
"You could see people knocking on windows, trying to get out," said one resident, Mark Duggan.
Witnesses said the plane banked sharply before crashing near a playground in the park.
The crash was the third fatal airline accident in just over four months.
Sunday afternoon local investigators sifted through the wreckage, which looked like the shreds of a crumpled paper ball.
The park sits in a gully about 100 yards from the apartment building, and a bit farther from a densely populated subdivision.
The investigators said the plane hit the ground with such force that pieces were found buried.
An 8-year-old girl, who had been standing in a stairway at the time of the crash, was knocked down by the force. She was treated and released from Community Hospital here.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB