Tagged: plane crash

If you lived in Michigan in the summer of 1987, you might remember one news story that was set apart from the others. 

It was the evening of August 16 when Northwest flight 255 took off from Detroit Metro Airport, headed to Phoenix. Moments after the plane took off, the MD-80 tilted slightly -- enough for the left wing to clip a light pole, shear the top off of a rental car building, and crash where Middlebelt meets I-94. 

154 people aboard the plane and two on the ground were killed. But there was one survivor: four-year-old Cecilia Cichan. 

Filming has wrapped on a documentary featuring the only survivor of the 1987 plane crash near Detroit.

Twenty-five years after Northwest Flight 255 killed some 150 passengers, Cecelia Cichan is telling her story publicly for the first time.

She was just four years old when she survived the crash that killed her parents and brother. Now she and 13 other lone survivors of commercial crashes are the focus of the film entitled "Sole Survivor."

Update 3/30/2011, 6:32 a.m.:

A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman says three people have been killed after a small, single-engine Piper airplane crashed into a Monroe city park, the Associated Press reports. From the AP:

Police and other emergency personnel responded to the Tuesday afternoon crash at Munson Park. A police dispatcher says reports of the crash came in at 4:04 p.m.

Munson Park is at the southeast corner of Monroe Custer Airport, about 35 miles southwest of Detroit and just north of the Ohio state line.

FAA Spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says her agency is investigating the crash. The investigation will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Tracking service FlightAware.com reports that the plane left an airport in Bedford County, Pa., at 2:26 p.m. and was due in Monroe at 4 p.m.

3/29/2011, 5:12 p.m.:

From the Associated Press:

Police and other emergency personnel are responding to a small plane crash at Munson Park in the city of Monroe.

A police dispatcher says reports of the crash came in at 4:04 p.m. Tuesday.

It was not immediately known if anyone on the plane or on the ground suffered any injuries.

Monroe is about 35 miles southwest of Detroit and just north of the Ohio state line.

This from FOX 2 News in Detroit:

FOX 2 News is learning there has been a small plane crash near Monroe Custer Airport in Munson Park just across North Custer Road from the airport.

Witnesses tell us they could see smoke coming from the area.

We spoke by phone with a man who works nearby. He says he saw the burning plane and heard there were three people on board.

A second caller tells FOX 2 he's hearing there are three victims, as well.

Firefighters and police are on the scene.