Services Held for Crash Survivor’s Family

Cecilia Cichan’s survival of the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 will help the rest of the little girl’s family cope with the deaths of her parents and brother, a priest said at their funeral Wednesday.

Michael Cichan, 32, his wife, Paula, 33, and their 6-year-old son, David, who were among 156 people killed in the Aug. 16 accident, were remembered during the Mass at St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church. Their daughter, Cecilia, 4, was the lone survivor of the crash.

“Talking about Cecilia will always remind us of the miracle of life. We believe God spared her to give the rest of her family the strength to bear the cross,” the Rev. Andrew Robberecht said during the service.

About 350 people packed the church, 25 miles from Philadelphia, where the Cichans had been married. Burial was at George Washington Memorial Park in Whitemarsh Township, about 10 miles from the church.

The family had been visiting relatives in the area and were en route home to Tempe, Ariz., when the plane crashed near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“Today, as in the past few days, we all stand together as a shocked and stricken group of people. Death brings us face to face with the deepest questions of faith,” Father Robberecht said.

The priest, who also teaches at nearby Archbishop Wood High School, had officiated at the Cichans’ wedding ceremony and baptized their two children. He described them as “a young, beautiful family with a promising future.”

Cecilia’s condition report was upgraded from “serious” to “fair” Wednesday at the University of Michigan Hospitals’ Burn Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The child’s aunt, Rita Lumpkin, told her Monday night that her parents and brother had been in an accident and she would never see them again. Relatives said that Cecilia did not cry, but asked “a couple of times” what “never again” meant.

Her grandmother, Pauline Ciamaichela, said: “She didn’t understand. She’ll be asking again.”

Meanwhile, the Detroit News reported Wednesday that a volunteer firefighter who helped to save Cecilia after the crash was docked a day’s pay for not reporting to his job with the airline that night. Northwest denied the report, attributed to an officer of the man’s union.

Dan Kish, 30, who cleans airplanes for Northwest, was the first to hear the cries of the 4-year-old girl coming from the wreckage. He spent the next 22 hours at the crash site, working as a member of the all-volunteer Romulus Fire Department.

When Kish reported to work the next night, an International Assn. of Machinists officer said, he learned that he would lose a day’s pay, although his wife reportedly had called twice to notify his supervisor that he would be absent the previous night.

Northwest issued a statement in Minneapolis denying that Kish’s pay would be docked.