It’s been 35 years since the tragic crash of Northwest Flight 255.
The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Detroit Metro Airport back on Aug. 16, 1987, killing 156 people -- with just one person surviving, a four-year-old girl.
Hank Winchester talked with Captain John Thiede of the Romulus Fire Department, the firefighter who pulled that child from the wreckage that night.
“I was just checking this, it was weird. When I look back at it, I can picture how the scene was,” Thiede said. “Once we found her, we had that little piece of joy that we found a survivor, because we didn’t think we’d find anybody.”
Cecilia Cichan was the four-year-old girl who suffered serious injuries, but survived the crash. The family she was traveling with did not survive. The family was from Arizona.
“It was tough, because, a lot of those (firefighters) guys went home with nothing, and we found a person,” Thiede said of being a young firefighter at the scene.
Watch his full interview with Thiede in the video player above.
More -- Reporter notebook: It’s hard to believe it’s been 35 years since Flight 255 crashed on I-94