- S P I R I T Q U E S T -
This cache will bring you to one of several memorials to the victims of the
Northwest Flight 255 tragedy on August 16, 1987 at 8:46pm.
This memorial includes a statue of a little girl on a swing and is a
very moving remembrance to the lone survivor of the crash,
Cecilia Cichan, who was 4 years old at the time.
The cache is located here is located in the
United Memorial Garden Cemetery, Plymouth, MI.
Flight 255 was a commercial passenger flight that originated from Saginaw, Michigan and was scheduled to end in Santa Ana, California, with two planned stops at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and also Phoenix, Arizona.
The aircraft was piloted by two seasoned airline crew members, Captain John R. Maus, 57, and First Officer David J. Dodds, 35. Captain Maus was a seasoned pilot who had been with the airline for almost 32 years and had accrued 20,859 flight hours with the First Officer Dodds having 8,044 hours of flying experience and over 8 years with Northwest. There were four additional crew members and 149 passengers scheduled to be onboard.
A photo of MD-82 tail number N312RC, taken before the crash.
It had originally entered service with Republic Airlines in 1981 and had a tail number of N312RC. When Republic was purchased by Northwest in 1986, the Republic fleet was merged into the Northwest fleet of aircraft.
There were little changes to the planes physical markings or colorings aside from some Northwest logos being added to the aircraft with its original Republic paint still showing.
The Flight
Sunday August 16th, 1987 at around 6.53pm eastern time, Flight 255 departed the airport in Saginaw and made its way to Detroit Metropolitan airport, landing at approximately 7.42 PM and parking at the terminal gate D-15. This layover was to allow passengers who were only coming to Detroit to offboard and allow some who were going to Phoenix and beyond to board. The planned departure time from Detroit was about 8.45pm eastern time.
Prior to departing for Phoenix, the Captain gave the aircraft a walk-around inspection, making sure everything was in order, then returned to the aircraft to finish his pre-flight checks inside the aircraft.
Upon his return to the cockpit, the captain and crew were advised of a thunderstorm about 18 miles away from Detroit Metro Airport and the light drizzle that had begun in the area. The crew was also advised of the possibility of low level wind shear, a potentially deadly weather phenomenon, causing a sudden change in wind's speed of 15 knots, and/or a change in direction of 30 degrees or more.
An example of low-level windshear
At 8:32 PM, the aircraft pushed back from its gate, D-15, and a minute later started its engines, and taxied for takeoff on Runway 3C, a strip of concrete and asphalt about 200' wide and over 8,500 feet long, following a heading of 33.5° magnetic.
At 8:44 PM, Northwest 255 was cleared for takeoff. The flight crew advanced the throttles, began their takeoff roll, and rotated skyward at exactly 8:45 PM. A few seconds later, the unthinkable became reality for the passengers and crew of Northwest Flight 255.
The plane was just clearing the runway at 8:46 p.m. when it tilted slightly. The left wing clipped a light pole, and the damaged airliner sheared the top off a rental car building.
The McDonnell Douglas MD80 left a half-mile trail of debris, charred wreckage, magazines and trays of food along Middle Belt Road when it crashed on that fateful evening.
The crash scene
The horrific tragedy claimed one-hundred-fifty-six souls.... save one little 4-year-old girl, Cecilia Cichan, who was traveling with her parents and brother at the time. She was found still strapped into a booster seat attached to an airline seat a few feet from the body of her mother and rescued from the scene by Romulus firefighter John Thiede, who was a 21-year-old rookie at the time.
Thiede and two others, Dan Kish and Roy Brindamour were credited with the rescue of Cichan.
Recovering 4-year-old Cecilia Cichan in 1987
Thiede and Kish had arrived on the scene and begun spraying water on the debris to extinguish the fire and smoke. Kish heard a faint moaning coming from where Cichan was buried in the wreckage and called Thiede (who hadn't heard the sound) to assist. Kish went one way near the viaduct at Middlebelt and I-94 and Thiede the other way. Thiede located Cichan and pulled her to safety.
John Thiede (recent)
Thiede is now a Lieutenant still within that department and still has contact with the now-adult Cichan who was married a few years ago and he even attended her wedding.
Cecelia Chihan-Lumpkin Crocker, survivor of Flight 255 Crash (2012)
sports an airplane tattoo on her left wrist as a reminder by choice.
The Reports
The FAA investigation into the crash determined that Flight 255 was the deadliest sole-survivor aircraft crash in United States Aviation Hisotry until that time.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the crew's failure to set the wing flaps on the aircraft was one of the primary causes of the crash and a cockpit warning system did not alert the crew to the problem.
The Memorials
The memorial at the crash site is one of the many that were created because of this disaster. The 5-ton, four-piece marker containing the names of the 156 souls who perished was unveiled at 7:00 PM on August 16, 1994 on a hill at I-94 and Middle Belt Road. This unveiling was done on the 7th Anniversary of the crash.
There is a Geocache near the site of the 4-piece marker to
compliment this memorial: "Time Stopped Here"
http://coord.info/GC2CE2G
This is the complete list of victims from Flight 255
(www.flight255memorial.com):
Please take a moment to remember...
...those who were part of Flight 255.