www.PlaneSafe.org: About

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (also called FOI or FOIA) was created by Congress in 1966 to give the public access to information held by the federal government. Click here for more information.

United Airlines Flight 585 - Postscript

On June 5, 2001, the NTSB released a Revised Final Report for United 585, the Boeing 737, which crashed over ten years ago on March 3, 1991, at Colorado Springs, CO.
The NTSB has formally revised the Probable Cause for UA585 to be:
"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."
United 585 was possibly the first major commercial airline crash with no Public Hearing back in 1992. A meeting was held which tended to blame the wind for the crash.
UA585 is now one of the few major commercial airline crashes with a Revised Final Report. The first final report was issued December 8, 1992.
We very much thank the NTSB for their diligence and for the extensive revisions to the report. Click here for more information.

United Flight 585 - August 4, 1992 Letter of Reprimand to UAL

Click here for the letter of August 4, 1992, was a Letter of Reprimand issued to United Airlines regarding the "Mack Moore" incident.

United Flight 585 - November 10, 1992 Letter of Acknowledgement

We now know that on October 8, 1992, Boeing had a meeting to "Develop 737 Rudder PCU Retrofit Strategy." The meeting began with: "WE HAVE A PROBLEM." They stated that they did not have to ground the fleet, but they needed a retrofit program to fix the 737.
The Carl Vogt, former NTSB Chair, letter of November 10, 1992, acknowledges the potential for a rudder reversal on all 737's. Click here.

United Flight 585 - March 1999 Press Release

To view the press releases, click here.