This blog is Copyright ©1995~2018 by Karl Denton

Monday, August 6, 2007

Irony at its best

Late 2007 was the 20th anniversary of the crash of Flight 255 at Detroit Metro airport and it struck me…

I was head of security at 3 of the hotels that are near the airport back then and at the time the current name of the hotel I was finishing up a report on was the Hilton.  Sergeant Painter from the Romulus Police Department and I had just finished some sort of disturbance call and were outside comparing notes standing next to his squad car in front of the glass-wall front of the hotel.  We heard an explosion and saw the reflection of the crash in the glass.  In an instant he said “I’ll go south you go north”, I did not have a squad car and wore a suit (no uniform) so I was not sure how things would go or what I would find.

I had my radio in hand and headed toward the north side of the freeway where thick black smoke was flowing into a rainy, humid sky.  It took about, two maybe three minutes to get to my destination and what I found is imprinted in my thoughts to this day.  Other then my original reports and a segment on the Flight 255 memorial website this is the only time I have written about it.  It is graphic and disturbing…

When I pulled up to the stop light at the street just before the freeway over pass it was a surreal scene.  Fire everywhere, people running screaming!  The cockpit of the aircraft sitting just 50 feet in front of my car on fire.  A second auto to my left was engulfed inflames the occupants did not have time to escape and this car had been driving on the freeway, when the aircraft hit the overpass this car had been blown off, landing some 150ft away.  I put my car in park and turned off the ignition and left my emergency flasher on so other rescue vehicles could see and not drive any further.  When I got out of the car a woman sobbing came over and said the driver of “that car” as she pointed to one just next to the vehicle on fire, "is running down the street… that car just missed her!"  Un-fortunately I could not do much for the woman, as my concern was to first see about rescue but second protect the scene for investigators that would come later.

This is the part where I loose all faith in the human race… the embankment was covered in luggage from top to bottom and beyond and just to the west of this horrific scene was a subdivision.  Had the plane landed there it would have been much worse but instead I found people going through this luggage taking what they could.  Then getting angry when moved out of the area, complete loss of faith… About a half an hour into efforts to find survivors I was approached by a man wearing hospital scrubs he said “ I am a doctor is there any thing I can do?”, my reply was "there is not much left but maybe under the bridge."  I did not find out until many hours later that he found the soul survivor.  A 3-year baby girl who had been covered under her mothers body.  A whole bunch of faith returned!

I am not posting the names of these folks if you want to find them out they are on the memorial "website.": http://www.flight255memorial.com/

I spent about two and half hours at the scene and had to return to the Hilton as things started to get a bit crazy.  I got home that night about 4:00am and my wife thought I had been sunburned.  My skin had been turned a deep red from the intense heat of the fire from the time I was there.  The smell of jet fuel deep in my clothes I could even taste it.  The next morning and for the weeks that followed I had to put in some serious time as families for those that perished and investigators occupied the hotels under my watch.  All during that time the State Police kept calling asking if I needed to talk need to unload… Could not figure out why… The reports that I had read afterward stunned me; the divorce rate for those that were part of the rescue efforts was 70 or 80 percent!  We aren't meant to experience those things I was told.  Though at the time I thought I was just doing my job it had and still does have an impact on my life…

If you’re still reading now is the time for the ironic part…

Eventually I could not stand the stress of that job, maybe the area I don’t know but I had to move on and got hired as an engineer at Ford Motor Company, Got really board with that and moved to a supplier for a year but that was just as bad.  One of my coworkers at the supplier left and found a job that was looking for an engineer specific to my field, I thought what the heck!  And got the job!  That was 12 years ago the company you ask?  No names but they make jet engines and at the facility I work at and they have 8 test cells (a place here they run engines 24 hours a day) so every morning I pull into my parking spot get out of my car with my coffee in hand and smell that God awful smell of jet fuel burning.  Every morning I revisit the night when flight 255 went down.  Some are asking “then why continue to work there?” about a month after starting is when I was diagnosed with MS.  Makes you crazy with self-doubt.  I am just now regaining the confidence in myself to ask is this worth it?

The overwhelming good that came of that night was the soul survivor, she is now married and has her own children, an education in child psychology…

But I have to say this whole thing is irony at its best!