The 1987 Northwest Airlines flight 255 plane crash. In Michigan, on Aug. 15, 1987, a Northwest Airlines passenger plane crashed in Romulus, Michigan, shortly after takeoff while en route to ...

FILE - Flowers and pictures are shown at the memorial in Romulus, Mich., to mark the 25th anniversary of the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Aug. 16, 2012.

Cecelia Crocker — known as Cecelia Cichan at the time of the 1987 crash — was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 255 when it crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, killing 154 people on board ...

Joan Pontante, left, and Gloria Best place on hearts photographs of family members who died in the Northwest Airlines flight 255 crash in 1987. The Northwest Airlines flight crashed in Romulus ...

FILE - Flowers and pictures are shown at the memorial in Romulus, Mich., to mark the 25th anniversary of the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Aug. 16, 2012.

August 16, 1987; (156 total deaths, 6 crew/148 pax/2 on the ground): Detroit (Romulus), Michigan- Flight 255, a Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82, (DC-9-82), crashed just 22 seconds after ...

The crash on Thursday has some similarity to a 1987 one on Northwest Airlines Flight 255, which crashed in Michigan after the plane’s pilots failed to extend its wing flaps and slats for takeoff.

When Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Cecelia Cichan was the only one to survive. Her family was among the 154 passengers killed. Originally reported by Kay ...

A memorial in Romulus, Michigan, for the victims of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (AP) At least three other people have been “sole survivors” of plane crashes.