DETROIT — Cecelia Cichan carries a permanent reminder of a tragedy she doesn’t remember — a plane crash that claimed 156 lives when she was just 4 years old.
As the sole survivor of Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed shortly after takeoff near Detroit Metropolitan Airport on August 16, 1987, Cichan, who is now known as Cecelia Crocker, has spent decades coming to terms with the unimaginable. Now, in the documentary “Sole Survivor,” she shares her story publicly for the first time.
“I think about the accident every day,” Crocker says in the film. “It’s kind of hard not to when I look in the mirror.”
The scars on her arms, legs, and forehead are daily reminders of the crash. But another mark — an airplane tattoo on her left wrist —is one she chose.
“I got this tattoo as a reminder of where I’ve come from,” she explains in the documentary. “So many scars were put on my body against my will, and I decided to put this on my body for myself.”
The crash of Flight 255
On the evening of August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 was departing for Phoenix when it failed to gain altitude and clipped a light pole before crashing onto Middlebelt Road in Romulus, Michigan, the Associated Press reports. The MD-80 left a half-mile trail of wreckage, claiming the lives of all 154 passengers and crew onboard, along with two people on the ground, according to the Associated Press.
Investigators later determined the flight crew had failed to set the wing flaps properly for takeoff, and a cockpit warning system did not alert them to the issue.
Crocker’s parents and older brother were among those killed. She was raised in Alabama by her aunt and uncle, who shielded her from the media and the weight of her extraordinary survival.
A firefighter’s account
John Thiede, a 21-year-old rookie firefighter with the Romulus Fire Department at the time, was among the first responders at the crash site, CBS Detroit reports. Initially expecting a small private plane incident, Thiede was confronted with extensive devastation upon arrival.
Amid the wreckage, Thiede and his team heard a noise that led them to a seat turned upside down.
“There was a seat upside down, and we moved the chair and checked underneath the chair. When we looked, a hand was coming out from the chair that she was in,” he recalled.
That’s when they discovered 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan, now known as Cecelia Crocker, who had survived the crash.
Thiede and Crocker reconnected in the mid-2000s and have maintained a friendship since. Thiede attended her wedding in 2007.highlighting their enduring bond.
Other lone survivors featured in “Sole Survivor”
Directed by Ky Dickens, “Sole Survivor” explores the lives of those who walked away from aviation disasters alone. In addition to Crocker, the documentary follows three other sole survivors:
- George Lamson Jr., who survived a 1985 Galaxy Airlines crash in Reno, Nevada, at age 17.
- Bahia Bakari, who was 12 when she survived a Yemenia Airways crash near the Comoros Islands in 2009.
- Jim Polehinke, the co-pilot of Comair Flight 5191, which crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2006.
Original story:
By Daily Mail
ROMULUS, Mich. — Cecelia Crocker’s body provides her with a constant reminder of the most traumatic event of her life - one that she doesn’t otherwise remember.
At only 4-years-old, Crocker was the lone survivor of a 1987 plane crash that killed 154 people aboard and two on the ground near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
In the new documentary film, Sole Survivor, Crocker breaks her silence, discussing how the crash of the Phoenix-bound jetliner has affected her. “I think about the accident every day. It’s kind of hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror,” she said.
This article, originally published on May 16, 2013, has been updated with additional information related to the documentary.
