Whether or not the flaps and slats were extended, the testimony of the witnesses varied, but most responded that they were extended, although they could not tell how far. Click on any highlighted name to view.
electric power between the airplane's left dc. Northwest Airlines Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashed shortly after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport on August 16, 1987, at about 8:46 p.m. EDT (00:46 UTC August 17), killing all six crew members and 148 of its 149 passengers, along with two people on the ground. 156 people died in the crash, including six crew members, 148 passengers and two people on the ground on Aug. 16, 1987 ... Family and friends of Flight 255 victims … From late 1987 until the company merged with Delta Air Lines in early 2010, the last nonstop flight from Detroit to Phoenix was renumbered as Flight 261.In memory of the victims, a black granite memorial was erected in 1994; it stands (surrounded by On August 16, 2007, the twentieth anniversary of the crash, a memorial service was held at the site. Family and friends of the victims and others from across the Metro Detroit area (including local media) attended, and a local priest read each victim's name aloud.The crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 was covered in 2010 in The sole survivor of the crash was one of 4 who appeared in the 2013 documentary 1987 plane crash of an MD-82 in Detroit, Michigan, USAAftermath of the Flight 255 crash. Copyright 2003 Flight 255 Memorial. The Northwest hangar at the airport served as a temporary morgue.More than 30 of the passengers were under the age of 25; two 12-year-olds were unaccompanied minors.The flight's captain, John R. Maus, was an experienced pilot with 31 years of experience with the airline. Listed below are names of Passengers and Crew Members who lost their lives in the crash. While the investigators felt that it was probable that the P-40 circuit breaker had been pulled by the pilot on the incident flight, they could not definitely confirm if the circuit breaker had been tripped, intentionally opened, or if electric current failed to flow through the breaker to the CAWS while the breaker was closed:"Because the P-40 circuit breaker was badly damaged during the accident, the Safety Board couldn't determine positively its pre-impact condition. The crew was also informed about the update of the At 20:42:11 Flight 255 was instructed to line up and wait at the beginning of runway 3C. The flight's first officer, David J Dodds, had logged more than 8,000 hours of flying in his career. ... Each individual page may feature photos, a small bio, and a poem or song. The controller advised that there would be a 3-minute delay to allow the Flight 255 made its takeoff roll on Detroit's runway 3C at approximately 20:44:21, with Maus at the controls, as recorded on the aircraft's Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR):The plane lifted off the runway at 170 knots (200 mph; 310 km/h), and began to roll from side to sideThe crash was witnessed from the air traffic control tower, and almost immediately the airport was shut down.The flight crew and all but one of the passengers were killed in the crash.Eyewitnesses stated that Flight 255's takeoff roll was longer than usual and that the aircraft took off at a steeper angle. There was only one survivor from the crash, 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan.As of 2013, the crash is the fourth-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.The victims of the crash included NBA player Nick Vanos, seven people from Orange County, California and a four-month old baby from Arizona.
All rights reserved. View the Memorial Marker. Contributing to the accident was the absence of electrical power to the airplane takeoff warning system which thus did not warn the flightcrew that the airplane was not configured properly for takeoff. On August 16, 1987, Northwest Flight 255 crashed shortly after taking off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 156 people.The flight was headed to California when it left the gate in Detroit. Three possible conditions would have caused power to be interrupted at the P-40 circuit breaker: the circuit breaker was intentionally opened by either the flight crew or maintenance personnel, the circuit breaker tripped because of a transient overload and the flight crew did not detect the open circuit breaker, or the circuit breaker did not allow current to flow to the CAWS power supply and did not annunciate the condition by tripping." As the plane rushed down the runway, it lifted only 40 feet off the ground.The plane hit lampposts and a rental-car office. The interruption of the input power to the CAWS occurred at the P-40 circuit breaker. Aircraft debris field scattered along Middlebelt Road. bus and the CAWS unit.