Memorial will mark 30 years since Flight 255 crash at Detroit airport

Wednesday marks the 30th anniversary of the deadliest plane crash in Michigan history.

On Aug. 16, 1987, at 8:46 p.m., the Phoenix-bound Northwest Flight 255 crashed under an I-94 overpass on Middlebelt Road near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 156 people, including all six crew members, two motorists, and all but one of the 149 passengers on board.

A 30th anniversary vigil is planned for 8:46 p.m. Wednesday at the memorial site in Romulus, and there is also a simultaneous vigil planned at the Phoenix memorial, at 5:46 p.m. Pacific time, according to a post by Tony Zanger to the Flight 255 Family Facebook group on July 23.

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Here are key facts about the Northwest Flight 255 crash:

• A 4- year-old girl, Cecelia Cichan, was the sole survivor of the crash. Firefighters heard faint cries coming from the wreckage, and Romulus Fire Lt. John Thiede found Cecelia strapped into a booster seat attached to an airline seat. Her parents, Michael and Paula Cichan, and her 6-year-old brother, David, perished in the crash.

• Flight 255 is the fifth-deadliest aviation disaster in the history of the U.S., according to a database by Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archive in Geneva, Switzerland. The only crash deadlier than it at the time was the American Airlines Flight 191 crash in Chicago in 1979, which saw 273 fatalities and is still the deadliest crash in U.S. history.

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• The flight crashed during takeoff. Federal investigators blamed the crash on the failure of pilots to deploy the plane's flaps and slats for takeoff. Investigators said a lack of electricity to the takeoff warning system, which couldn't be explained, also contributed.

• Members of a Flight 255 support group helped start the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation, a group whose mission is to raise the “standard of safety, security and survivability for aviation passengers and to support survivors and victims’ families,” according to the foundation’s website.

Support group members also successfully lobbied Congress to pass the 1996 Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act, which established guidelines for how airlines should deal with families after crashes and allotted federal money to provide financial and medical help to victims.