ROMULUS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Families and first responders gathered Sunday at a memorial site in Romulus to honor the 156 people killed in the Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crash, 39 years after the deadliest aviation disaster in Michigan history.
On Aug. 16, 1987, Flight 255 crashed moments after taking off from Detroit Metro Airport, bound for Phoenix. The crash killed 154 people on board and 2 people on the ground. Federal investigators determined the tragedy was caused by flight crew error.
Tony Zanger lost his brother Michael and Michael's fiancée in the crash. He traveled from Monroe County to attend the annual vigil at the memorial site near I-94 and Middlebelt Road.
"I think it's really incredible 39 years later that we come together under tragic circumstances to a place that has become a source of healing," Zanger said.
"It keeps the memory of all the 156 who died alive," Zanger said.
Joan Pontante traveled from Syracuse, New York. Her brother, his wife, and their children were among those killed.
"This is Bill, he was 36, she was 32, Kathy, Hillary was three and the baby was four months old," Pontante said.
"We laugh, we cry, we joke and some people say can you do that and we say that's part of life, you just get on with it," Pontante said.
The crash had only one survivor — a 4-year-old girl named Cecilia Cichan. Her mother, father, and brother were killed. Cichan is now an adult and, while she did not attend Sunday's memorial, she remains in contact with John Thiede, one of the Romulus firefighters who rescued her from the wreckage.
"I actually got to go to her wedding back in the mid-2000s, just texted her today, she's in Europe with her family on vacation," Thiede said.
"I asked her how she was doing, she goes, she's hanging in there," Thiede said.
Thiede said he tries to return to the memorial site every year on Aug. 16.
"I come back I think just to pay that tribute to those families and I remember coming up here as a young firefighter… I came up here a boy, I think I left a man," Thiede said.
Zanger said it means a lot to see younger generations come out to honor those lost in the Flight 255 crash.
"It's amazing that some who weren't even born, they show up and they're very interested, they want to know, they have a need to know the information," Zanger said.
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