On the morning of March 3, 1991, a United Airlines jet approaching the Colorado Springs Airport after a brief flight from Denver crashed in Widefield Community Park, killing all 20 passengers and five crew members aboard.

Later that night, in the attic of a Colorado Springs nursing home, an electrical spark turned into a rolling inferno that killed nine elderly residents. A 10th victim died months later.

Wednesday marked the 30^th anniversary of one of the deadliest days in El Paso County history.

It was a day that ended nearly three dozen lives, thrust the county into a grim national spotlight, and eventually led to procedural changes in the Colorado Springs Fire Department and a design upgrade in one of the country’s most widely-used commercial planes.

United Airlines Flight 585, a Boeing 737-200, was preparing to land in Colorado Springs just before 10 a.m. when the plane suddenly flipped and plummeted nose-first into the ground at about 250 mph, crash investigators later concluded. The community park where the plane crashed and exploded was unpopulated that Sunday morning, and injuries on the ground were minimal.

An 8-year investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration concluded that a rudder malfunction caused the crash. In 2000, the Boeing Company agreed to redesign the steering mechanism of the 737.

The fire that nearly destroyed the Crystal Springs Estate retirement home may have burned undetected for as long as an hour before it broke through the ceiling, according to a report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nine women, ranging from 77 to 97 years in age, were killed in the blaze, and a tenth died months later. The El Paso County Coroner’s Office determined that all the women died of “asphyxia due to carbon monoxide inhalation,” according to the report.

Fire investigators concluded the Crystal Springs blaze might have been contained if the home had a sprinkler system. Two years after the inferno, the Colorado Springs City Council ruled that the city’s nursing, retirement and boarding homes must be equipped with sprinkler systems.

The Colorado Springs Fire Department sent 11 firefighters to Crystal Springs that night, but the crew was ill-equipped for a fire that size. Now, as standard procedure, any automatic alarm from a care center is met with two engines and a ladder truck.

The procedural and design changes brought on by that day may have saved countless lives. But even 30 years later, March 3 is still entrenched in the memories of El Paso County residents who witnessed the crash and the fire, and the date remains a black mark on the calendar for dozens of families who lost loved ones that day.   

• Gazette reporter Lance Benzel contributed to this story.