Flight - Downriver History & Facts

Unthinkable tragedy over our skies

Remnants of Northwest

The remnants of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 255 lay along Middle Belt road just south of I-94. There were 148 deaths — and one miraculous survivor. (Courtesy theintell.com)

Downriver’s most notable tragedy in history occurred on August 16, 1987, at 8:46 p.m., as Northwest Orient Airlines Flight #255, originating in Saginaw with a final destination in Orange County, Calfornia, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all crewmembers and 148 of 149 boarded passengers. As of 2016, it ranks as the fourth deadliest aviation crash in United States history, and the fourth deadliest for the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft line.

Captain John R. Maus was the pilot and David J. Dodds the first officer of the aircraft: a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, tail N312RC, which began its flight at Tri-City Airport in Saginaw. Its itinerary included stops at Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) and Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, before its final scheduled destination: John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The pilots were experienced, tallying 29,003 flight hours in 40 years of experience with the recently-merged Northwest Orient Airlines and Republic Airlines whose new hub (as Northwest Airlines) operated out of the J.M. Davey Terminal at Metro Airport.

Trajectory, path, and crash

The flight path of Flight 255.

Flight 255 carried 149 passengers and six crew members. The jet was manufactured in 1981, entering service as a Republic Aircraft. Takeoff initiated on Runway 3C at approximately 8:45 PM with a speed of 170 knots / 195 MPH. It began to roll side to side when elevated 50 feet above the ground. The aircraft then went into a stall, rotating 40 degrees to its left when it struck a light pole near the end of the runway, severing a portion of its left wing while igniting jet fuel. Rotating to the left an additional 90 degrees, it struck the southeastern corner of the Avis Car Rental building. With no controls available to the pilots, the aircraft crashed in an inverted form along Middle Belt Road, affecting vehicles traveling just south at the Wick Road intersection. Upon contact, the aircraft broke apart and burst into flame while making contact with the railway viaduct just north, as well as the viaduct carrying I-94 over Middle Belt Road.

This would be the first major aircraft disaster at Detroit Metropolitan Airport since its commission in 1927. Records show the most recent fatal incident occurred earlier that year, on March 4, involving a Northwest Orient Airlink aircraft, which had resulted in nine casualties.

The cockpit voice recorder (aka “black box”) provided evidence that the pre-flight taxi checklist was omitted. This would have determined if there were problems with the wing flaps and slats; they were not extended properly for smooth takeoff. An unknown factor was the cause of electrical failure within the takeoff warning system, which would had alerted the crew to the difficulty. Separate from this was also the unexplained reasoning for electrical failure onboard the Central Aural Warning System. This would later be answered by the failure of a P-40 circuit breaker; however, the actual cause still could not be determined (possibilities included tripping of the breaker, intentional opening of the circuit, or a question if electric current had flowed through the circuit at all). These determinations were confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board.