Jet’s Flap Controls Found, May Hold Clues to Crash

Federal investigators hope that the finding of the devices that controlled the wing flaps on Northwest Airlines Flight 255 will help them learn what caused the plane to crash.

Meanwhile, a memorial service for those who died in the crash was held Sunday at the Episcopalian Cathedral of St. Paul in Detroit, and Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham declared Sunday a day of mourning in his state. Flight 255 was headed from Detroit to Phoenix on Aug. 16 when it crashed, killing at least 155 people.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said that a flap-control lever and a drive mechanism that moved the plane’s wing flaps were found Saturday, and that examining them might help reveal how the flaps were set just before the plane crashed on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“We can’t confirm the lever was in any certain position (before the crash) without studying it in a controlled environment,” said Jack Drake of the safety board.

The drive mechanism--an electric motor and screw jack from inside the plane’s wing--was heavily damaged, Drake said.

“It was broken to the extent that we don’t expect it to tell us much,” he said.

The Detroit Free Press reported Sunday, however, that an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration, who requested anonymity, said that the drive mechanism indicated that the plane’s flaps and slats had been retracted during the takeoff, a setting that experts say could cause a crash.

In Detroit, about 100 worshipers attended an interfaith ceremony, conducted by about 15 clergymen, to remember the dead and to honor rescue workers and others who assisted in the aftermath of the crash.