ROYAL OAK, MI — On Aug. 16, 1987, the grassy banks of Middlebelt Road in Romulus near Interstate 94 were scorched black. Fiery wreckage, luggage and bodies were strewn throughout the roadway.

Northwest Flight 255, taking off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport destined for Arizona, clipped a light pole and crashed killing 156 on board.

It is the fourth deadliest crash since commercial airline travel began. Friends and relatives of those on board, many from Metro Detroit, are a quarter-century later still affected by the tragedy.

One person survived, 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan. She was dubbed the "miracle child" by media. Her father Michael, 32; mother Paula, 33; and brother David, 6, all perished in the crash.

"Sole Survivor," a new documentary by Ky Dickens seeks to find out what that reality is like, to be the statistical anomaly, to beat the odds and continue life knowing you so narrowly escaped death.

The movie premiered to a full theater at Royal Oak's Emagine Theater, 200 N. Main, Wednesday evening. There's a second showing Thursday at 7 p.m. Tickets were still available Wednesday night.

The movie caught up with sole survivors from four plane crashes, the 1987 Romulus crash; 71-passenger Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 in 1985 from Reno to Minneapolis, survived by 17-year-old George Lamson; 50-passenger Comair Flight 5191 in 2006 from Lexington, Ky. to Atlanta, survived by co-pilot Jim Polehinke; and 153-passenger Yemenia Flight 626 in 2009 from Sana'a, Yemen, to Moroni, Comoro, survived by a teenage French girl named Bahia Bakari.

Cichan, the Detroit connection, played the smallest role in the film, only appearing in a few scenes. Prior to "Sole Survivor," she never spoke publicly about the crash or aftermath.

In one touching scene, Cichan, whose married name is Crocker, talks about a memory of her mother. She now lives in New York City and is pursuing a Master's Degree in Art therapy.

She remembers riding in the car with her mother as Mister Mister's 1985 hit "Broken Wings" played on the stereo.

The toddler asked her mother what the song was about.

"It's about a bird with broken wings," Cichan recalled her mother saying in an attempt to avoid explaining love an heartbreak to a 3-year-old.

When the movie ended, several relatives of victims in the Romulus crash mingled in the lobby of the theater wearing pictures of their loved ones around their necks.

Tony Zanger of Monroe wore a picture of his younger brother, Michael, 23 at the time, and his then-fiance 26-year-old Hollins Langton. "Their spirit lives on," reads the banner banner carried by a plastic dove attached to the upper-right corner of the engagement photo.

Tony Zanger of Monroe said the crash of Northwest Flight 255 in 1987 was the "beginning of a nightmare."

"It was the beginning of a nightmare, I say, a night of hell," said Zanger, who to this day wears the engagement ring Langton gave his brother, the one he died wearing. "We traded wedding plans for funeral arrangements.

"We don't really like to talk that much about it because it's still very difficult even 26 years later."

The couple, both from Metro Detroit, had moved to Tempe, Az. to work as corporate travel agents. They were returning from a trip to the Detroit area where Langton attended a bridal shower, Michael Zanger his 5-year reunion.

"Relief" is how Zanger described his emotions after seeing the film. He'd been consumed with "anticipation" about the portrayal of his brother's crash since he learned the director was working on the film two years ago.

"We're glad they didn't forget the survivor," he said, calling the film a "learning experience for those who want to know what it was like from the survivors' perspective and from the family members' perspective.

Cichan, though she sometimes emails with family members of victims in the crash, has yet to participate in the annual memorial service on the crash anniversary.

A memorial listing the victims of flight 255 resides near the crash location at I-94 and Middlebelt.

"We're glad to see Cecilia a little more; we would like to meet her more, in person," said Zanger. "We will when she's ready. We respect her privacy."

Tony Zanger shows the engagement ring his brother Michael wore when Northwest Flight 255 crashed on Aug. 16, 1987.

Carl Spiess, 67, of Livonia and wife Nancy, now retired, both heard stories of the crash and wondered what happened to the survivor.

Carl Spiess, a wing engineer, had eight coworkers who were employed when Flight 255 went down.

"You ever talk to anybody who's been over to wars and stuff like that; they don't really talk much about it," Carl Spiess said. "So you get bits and pieces... about finding body parts, they had to bag body parts and stuff like that, and another guy talked about people's belongings being all over the place and you feel like you're invading someone's privacy."

Nancy Spiess worked as a flight attendant for 18 years.

"I always wondered what happened to the little girl and it bothered me," she said. "So it was nice.

"I'm just so glad to hear she's OK. That's the reason I came... I thought it was great."

The documentary will be officially released nationwide this summer.

