Date: August 16, 1987
Type: McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-82
Registration: N312RC
Operator: Northwest Airlines, Inc.
Where: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Romulus, Michigan
Report No. NTSB-AAR-88-05
Report Date: May 10, 1988 Pages: 138

Executive Summary:

About 2046 eastern daylight time on August 16, 1987, Northwest
Airlines, Inc., flight 255 crashed shortly after taking off from runway
3 center at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Romulus,
Michigan.  Flight 255, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82, U.S. Registry
N312RC, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight and was en route to
Phoenix, Arizona, with 149 passengers and 6 crewmembers.

According to witnesses, flight 255 began its takeoff rotation about
1,200 to 1,500 feet from the end of the runway and lifted off near the
end of the runway.  After liftoff, the wings of the airplane rolled to
the left and the right about 35 degrees in each direction.  The
airplane collided with obstacles northeast of the runway when the left
wing struck a light pole located 2,760 feet beyond the end of the
runway.  Thereafter the airplane struck other light poles, the roof of
a rental car facility, and then the ground.  It continued to slide
along a path aligned generally with the extended centerline of the
takeoff runway.  The airplane broke up as it slid across the ground and
postimpact fires erupted along the wreckage path.  Three occupied
vehicles on a road adjacent to the airport and numerous vacant vehicles
in a rental car parking lot along the airplane's path were destroyed by
impact forces and/or fire.

Of the persons on board flight 255, 148 passengers and 6 crewmembers
were killed; 1 passenger, a 4-year-old child, was injured seriously.
On the ground, two persons were killed, one person was injured
seriously, and four persons suffered minor injuries.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable
cause of the accident was the flightcrew's failure to use the taxi
checklist to ensure that the flaps and slats were extended for takeoff.
Contributing to the accident was the absence of electrical power to the
airplane takeoff warning system which thus did not warn the flightcrew
that the airplane was not configured properly for takeoff.  The reason
for the absence of electrical power could not be determined.