Northwest Airlines Flight 255
Encyclopedia
Northwest Airlines Flight 255 was a flight that originated at MBS International Airport
in Saginaw
, Michigan
, and was scheduled to terminate at John Wayne Airport
in Orange County
, California
, with intermediate stops at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
in Romulus
, Michigan
, near Detroit, and at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona
. The flight crashed after takeoff in Romulus on August 16, 1987, at about 20:46 EDT
(8:46 p.m. local time, 00:46 UTC August 17), killing all of the crew and passengers except for a 4-year-old girl,
Cecelia Cichan, who sustained serious injuries, according to a report by the FAA's Office of Aviation Research. Flight 255 is the deadliest sole-survivor aircraft crash in United States aviation history.
.
. Cecelia Cichan's mother, Paula Cichan, died in the crash, along with her father, Michael, and her 6-year-old brother, David. After the crash, Cecelia Cichan lived with relatives in Birmingham, Alabama
, who shielded her from public attention.
One of the passengers on Northwest 255 who died was Nick Vanos
, a center for the Phoenix Suns
basketball team. Two motorists on nearby Middlebelt Road were also killed. Five other persons on the ground were injured, one seriously. Fatalities were moved to a hangar at the airport functioning as a temporary morgue.
Twenty-nine passengers on board Flight 255 were under the age of 20. The youngest was 4-month-old Katelyn Best, of Mesa, Arizona
. Two 12-year-olds flying alone also died in the crash. Arlene Nelson, age 12, was from Detroit and Justin Keener, also 12, was from Scottsdale, Arizona
.
Out of all the 154 people on board Flight 255, 110 were from Arizona
. Most were residents of Phoenix or its surrounding areas. 18 people on the plane were residents of Michigan.
probable cause statement is as follows: "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the flightcrew's failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure the flaps
and slats
were extended for takeoff. 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. The reason for the absence of electrical power could not be determined."
The cockpit voice recorder
(CVR) provided the evidence regarding the flightcrew omission of the taxi checklist. The stall warning was annunciated. Using the CVR the investigators determined that the aural takeoff warning was not annunciated. The NTSB was unable to determine why there was an electrical power failure to the Central Aural Warning System
(CAWS).
Specifically, the NTSB could not determine if the circuit breaker had been tripped, intentionally opened, or if electrical current failed to flow through that circuit breaker to the CAWS while the breaker remained closed.
Other MD-80 pilots reported that some operators would occasionally intentionally open the P-40 circuit breaker to prevent annoyance of stall / flap warning annunciation during taxi operations.
Twenty-one years later, Spanair Flight 5022
crashed in Madrid airport due to incorrect flap settings, also created by omission during taxi checklists and fault of associated warning system. Coincidentally, 154 people also died in this accident which involved the same aircraft type as NW 255.
, the site of the crash. The memorial has a dove with a ribbon in its beak saying "Their spirit still lives on..." and below it are the names of those who perished in the crash.
A monument to the victims of the crash, many of whom were from the Phoenix Area, stands next to Phoenix City Hall in downtown Phoenix.
News footage about the cause of the crash can be heard in The 7A3
's song Mad Mad World.
On August 16, 2007, the twentieth anniversary of the crash, a memorial service was held at the Detroit crash site. For some of the people affected by the incident, it was the first time they had returned to the site since the crash.
After the crash in 1987, Northwest followed standard procedure and no longer used 255 as a flight number. From late 1987 until Northwest was absorbed by Delta in early 2010, the last nonstop flight from Detroit to Phoenix was renumbered as Flight 261.
, in an episode titled "Alarming Silence" The episode shows the events of the crash, as well as the investigation, and includes interviews with Flight 255 rescue workers, investigators and other MD-80 pilots.
MBS International Airport
MBS International Airport is located in Freeland, Michigan, serving the nearby cities of Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw. It was formerly named Tri City Airport or Freeland Tri-City Airport...
in Saginaw
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and was scheduled to terminate at John Wayne Airport
John Wayne Airport
John Wayne Airport is an airport in an unincorporated area in Orange County, California, with its mailing address in the city of Santa Ana, which is also the county seat, hence the International Air Transport Association airport code. The main entrance to the airport is off of MacArthur Blvd in...
in Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, with intermediate stops at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport , usually called Detroit Metro Airport, Metro Airport locally, or simply DTW, is a major international airport covering in Romulus, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It is Michigan's busiest airport....
in Romulus
Romulus, Michigan
Romulus is a suburban city of Metro Detroit, located in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 23,989 at the 2010 census, an increase from 22,979 in 2000. Romulus is home to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and a General Motors plant that opened in 1976...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, near Detroit, and at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
. The flight crashed after takeoff in Romulus on August 16, 1987, at about 20:46 EDT
EDT
EDT may refer to:* Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or EDTA, a chemical widely used within medicine, science and industry.* Eastern Daylight Time , a time zone observed in North America* AEDT or Australian Eastern Daylight Time...
(8:46 p.m. local time, 00:46 UTC August 17), killing all of the crew and passengers except for a 4-year-old girl,
Cecelia Cichan, who sustained serious injuries, according to a report by the FAA's Office of Aviation Research. Flight 255 is the deadliest sole-survivor aircraft crash in United States aviation history.
Aircraft and crew
The aircraft was a twin-engined McDonnell Douglas MD-82, FAA tail number piloted by Captain John R. Maus, 57, and First Officer David J. Dodds, 35. Northwest 255 was carrying 149 passengers and 6 crew. The jet had entered service with Northwest Airlines immediately after the merger with Republic Airlines, and the aircraft was still wearing a hybrid Republic/Northwest livery (full Republic branding but with "Northwest" titles on the forward fuselage) at the time of the accident.Crash
Flight 255 made its takeoff roll on Detroit's Runway 3C at approximately 8:45PM EDT with Capt. Maus at the controls. The plane lifted off the runway at 170 knots (195 mph) and soon began to roll from side to side at a height just under 50 feet above the ground. The MD-82 went into a stall and rolled 40 degrees to the left when it struck a light pole near the end of the runway, severing 18 feet of its left wing and igniting jet fuel stored in the wing. It then rolled 90 degrees to the right, and its right wing tore through the roof of an Avis rental car building. The plane, now uncontrolled, crashed inverted onto Middlebelt Road and hit vehicles just north of the intersection of Wick Rd. The aircraft then broke apart and burst into flames as it hit a railroad overpass and the overpass of eastbound Interstate 94Interstate 94 in Michigan
Interstate 94 is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Billings, Montana, to the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. In Michigan, it is a state trunkline highway that enters the state south of New Buffalo...
.
Passenger injuries and fatalities
The lone survivor of the aircraft was four-year-old Cecelia Cichan of Tempe, ArizonaTempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
. Cecelia Cichan's mother, Paula Cichan, died in the crash, along with her father, Michael, and her 6-year-old brother, David. After the crash, Cecelia Cichan lived with relatives in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, who shielded her from public attention.
One of the passengers on Northwest 255 who died was Nick Vanos
Nick Vanos
Nicolaas Vanos was an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. The San Mateo, California native was selected 32nd by the Suns in the 1985 NBA Draft, after playing for Hillsdale High School and collegiately at Santa Clara University...
, a center for the Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association and the only team in their division not to be based in California. Their home arena since 1992 has been the US...
basketball team. Two motorists on nearby Middlebelt Road were also killed. Five other persons on the ground were injured, one seriously. Fatalities were moved to a hangar at the airport functioning as a temporary morgue.
Twenty-nine passengers on board Flight 255 were under the age of 20. The youngest was 4-month-old Katelyn Best, of Mesa, Arizona
Mesa, Arizona
According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
. Two 12-year-olds flying alone also died in the crash. Arlene Nelson, age 12, was from Detroit and Justin Keener, also 12, was from Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
.
Out of all the 154 people on board Flight 255, 110 were from Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. Most were residents of Phoenix or its surrounding areas. 18 people on the plane were residents of Michigan.
Aftermath
The NTSBNational Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
probable cause statement is as follows: "The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the flightcrew's failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure the flaps
Flap (aircraft)
Flaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...
and slats
Leading edge slats
Slats are aerodynamic surfaces on the leading edge of the wings of fixed-wing aircraft which, when deployed, allow the wing to operate at a higher angle of attack. A higher coefficient of lift is produced as a result of angle of attack and speed, so by deploying slats an aircraft can fly at slower...
were extended for takeoff. 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. The reason for the absence of electrical power could not be determined."
The cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
(CVR) provided the evidence regarding the flightcrew omission of the taxi checklist. The stall warning was annunciated. Using the CVR the investigators determined that the aural takeoff warning was not annunciated. The NTSB was unable to determine why there was an electrical power failure to the Central Aural Warning System
Bitching betty
Bitching Betty is the slang term some pilots and crew use when referring to the voice warnings used by some aircraft systems....
(CAWS).
- "The failure of the takeoff warning system was caused by the loss of input 28V dc. electric power between the airplane’s left dc. bus and the CAWS unit. The interruption of the input power to the CAWS occurred at the P-40 circuit breaker. The mode of interruption could not be determined."
Specifically, the NTSB could not determine if the circuit breaker had been tripped, intentionally opened, or if electrical current failed to flow through that circuit breaker to the CAWS while the breaker remained closed.
- "Because the P-40 circuit breaker was badly damaged during the accident, it was impossible for the Safety Board to determine positively its preimpact condition. There were three possible conditions that would have caused power to be interrupted at the P-40 circuit breaker: the circuit breaker was intentionally opened by either the flightcrew or maintenance personnel, the circuit breaker tripped because of a transient overload and the flightcrew 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." [Pg. 53 of the report]
Other MD-80 pilots reported that some operators would occasionally intentionally open the P-40 circuit breaker to prevent annoyance of stall / flap warning annunciation during taxi operations.
Twenty-one years later, Spanair Flight 5022
Spanair Flight 5022
Spanair Flight JK 5022, from Barajas Airport in Madrid to Gran Canaria Airport in Gran Canaria, Spain, crashed just after take off from runway 36L of Barajas Airport at 14:24 CEST on 20 August 2008. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration EC-HFP...
crashed in Madrid airport due to incorrect flap settings, also created by omission during taxi checklists and fault of associated warning system. Coincidentally, 154 people also died in this accident which involved the same aircraft type as NW 255.
In remembrance
In memory of the victims, a black granite memorial, which was erected in 1994 - seven years after the tragic event, stands at the top of the hill surrounded by blue spruce trees at Middlebelt Road and Interstate 94Interstate 94
Interstate 94 is the northernmost east–west Interstate Highway, connecting the Great Lakes and Intermountain regions of the United States. I-94's western terminus is in Billings, Montana at a junction with Interstate 90; its eastern terminus is the U.S...
, the site of the crash. The memorial has a dove with a ribbon in its beak saying "Their spirit still lives on..." and below it are the names of those who perished in the crash.
A monument to the victims of the crash, many of whom were from the Phoenix Area, stands next to Phoenix City Hall in downtown Phoenix.
News footage about the cause of the crash can be heard in The 7A3
The 7A3
The 7A3 was a hip hop group based out of Los Angeles, California, which released one album in 1988 called Coolin' in Cali. It was composed of brothers Brett and Sean Bouldin, and DJ Muggs, who later achieved greater fame with Cypress Hill...
's song Mad Mad World.
On August 16, 2007, the twentieth anniversary of the crash, a memorial service was held at the Detroit crash site. For some of the people affected by the incident, it was the first time they had returned to the site since the crash.
After the crash in 1987, Northwest followed standard procedure and no longer used 255 as a flight number. From late 1987 until Northwest was absorbed by Delta in early 2010, the last nonstop flight from Detroit to Phoenix was renumbered as Flight 261.
Dramatization
Flight 255 is featured in Season 9 of National Geographic's show, Air Crash InvestigationMayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
, in an episode titled "Alarming Silence" The episode shows the events of the crash, as well as the investigation, and includes interviews with Flight 255 rescue workers, investigators and other MD-80 pilots.
See also
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- American Airlines Flight 191American Airlines Flight 191American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight in the United States from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles International Airport. On May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 operating the route crashed moments after takeoff from Chicago....
- Delta Air Lines Flight 1141Delta Air Lines Flight 1141Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 was a routine domestic passenger flight between Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah...
- LAPA Flight 3142LAPA flight 3142LAPA Flight 3142 was a scheduled Buenos Aires–Córdoba flight operated by the Argentine airline Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas. The service was operated with a Boeing 737-204C, registration LV-WRZ, that crashed on at 20:54 local time while attempting to take off from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery...
- Spanair Flight 5022Spanair Flight 5022Spanair Flight JK 5022, from Barajas Airport in Madrid to Gran Canaria Airport in Gran Canaria, Spain, crashed just after take off from runway 36L of Barajas Airport at 14:24 CEST on 20 August 2008. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration EC-HFP...
- Lufthansa Flight 540Lufthansa Flight 540Lufthansa Flight 540 was a scheduled commercial flight for Lufthansa operated with a Boeing 747-130, carrying 157 people . The flight was operating the final segment of its Frankfurt–Nairobi–Johannesburg route. On 20 November 1974 it crashed and caught fire shortly past the runway on...
- Yemenia Flight 626Yemenia Flight 626Yemenia Flight 626 was an Airbus A310-324 twin-engine jet airliner, operated by Yemenia, operating as a scheduled international flight from Sana'a, Yemen, to Moroni, Comoros, that crashed on 30 June 2009 at around 1:50 a.m. local time while on approach to Prince Said Ibrahim International...