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!
