Child Survives Crash Fatal to 155 - August 1987

At least 155 persons died as the result of a crash August 16, of a Northwest Airlines jet that had just taken off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Mich. Miraculously, a 4-year-old girl, Cecelia Cichan, of Tempe, Ariz., survived. Her father, mother, and brother all died. The death toll was the second-highest ever for a U.S. plane crash. The number of persons aboard the plane was uncertain. Two persons were killed on the ground. The cause of the disaster was not immediately determined.