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[edit] Dispute

The NTSB report lists a few injuries among the many fatalities, and the link showing that the crash killed "all the passengers except for a four-year old girl" is dead. Could somebody clear this up? Also, the contributing (not immediate cause) electrical malfunction cited in the NTSB report should be listed. Bayerischermann 21:33, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

This is a true deal. The MD-82 was on the flight when it crashed on takeoff. When it went down, it crashed onto a freeway just outside of the airport. Of all the passengers and crew aboard this flight, the sole survivor of this crash was a 4-year-old girl who was more or less smothered by the mother at impact. Because of this, she was shielded from the explosive imapact when the plane hit the ground. I can't remember if she lived through the recovery and is alive today, but I do remember that Northwest was in pretty deep trouble because of the accident for about 2-3 years. In the end, Northwest completely revamped pre-flight checklists on all aircraft.

                                                                              Jonathon, Bethel, AK 9.16.05

I believe that the three other injuries were probably people in vehicles along the freeway, while the four-year-old girl was the fourth injury, and the only survivor of those who were actually onboard the aircraft. Alex, Prescott WI 9.25.05

Actually the full NTSB report indicates that the mother was found 30 ft from the 4 year old girl and had NOTHING to do with saving here. This was make up by the media to be a feel good story.

-Regarding the previous entry about little Cecelia's Mom being found 30 feet away from her at the scene...(bless her soul), I could not find that fact in the NTSB report (AAR88-05) as you mentioned. I may have simply missed it - Can anyone verify this? -And please state your information source(s). Thanks, Russ, Tempe, AZ 2.3.06

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We can safely remove the dispute here. This NTSB link confirms 154 passenger/crew fatalities, 1 passenger survivor, 2 fatalities on the ground, 5 injuries on the ground. http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1988/AAR8805.htm

As to the question above about the sole survivor, Cecelia Cichan, the article correctly states that she is still alive today. In fact she appears to have corrected the spelling of her name in a few wikipedia articles in 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=68.220.220.149

Other links that confirm the stats can be found on this page: http://www.flight255memorial.com/thecrash.html

I thought Cecelia was only 2 yrs old at the time. 9-25-06

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