Latest news with #Cecelia
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sole survivor: The 4-year-old girl who lived through the 1987 Detroit plane crash
The Brief Only one person walked away from the Air India crash Thursday that killed more than 240 people. His miraculous story brings to mind other people who have been the lone survivors of plane crashes. Cecelia Cichan was 4 years old when the plane she was on with her parents and brother crashed near Detroit in 1987. The Air India plane crash that killed all but one person on board has raised questions about how he survived – and whether others have been the only survivors in previous crashes. Vishwashkumar Ramesh was traveling to London with his brother Thursday when he was ejected from the Air India Boeing 787. He was able to walk to a nearby ambulance. Doctors said he's got multiple injuries to his body, but he seemed to be out of danger. As miraculous as his story is, he's not the only person to ever be the sole survivor of a plane crash. Several other people have been the lone survivors of plane crashes, including Cecelia Cichan, a 4-year-old girl who lived through a plane crash in Detroit in 1987. RELATED: Lone survivor: What we know about the only man to survive the Air India crash The backstory Cecelia Crocker — who was Cecelia Cichan at the time of the crash — was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 255 when it crashed in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, killing 154 people on board, including her parents and brother. Two people also died on the ground. The Phoenix-bound plane was clearing the runway when it tilted and the left wing clipped a light pole before shearing the top off a rental car building. The McDonnell Douglas MD80 left a half-mile trail of bodies and wreckage along Middle Belt Road. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the plane's crew failed to set the wing flaps properly for takeoff. The agency also said a cockpit warning system did not alert the crew to the problem. Dig deeper Firefighter John Thiede, one of the first responders to arrive on scene, said 4-year-old Cecelia was still strapped in her plane seat when she was found. RELATED: Lone survivor of Air India crash reportedly recalls "loud noise" after takeoff "There was a seat upside down, and we moved the chair and checked underneath the chair. When we looked, a hand was coming out from the chair that she was in," Thiede told CBS News. Crocker's family lived in Tempe, Ariz., but after the crash, she was raised in Alabama by her aunt and uncle who shielded her from the media. What they're saying: In a 2013 documentary, Cecelia said she thought about the crash every day and that she had scars on her arms, legs and forehead. She had also gotten an airplane tattoo on her wrist. "I got this tattoo as a reminder of where I've come from. I see it as — so many scars were put on my body against my will — and I decided to put this on my body for myself," she said in the film. At least three other people have been "sole survivors" of plane crashes. George Lamson Jr., then a 17-year-old from Plymouth, Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985. Lamson in a social media post Thursday said the news of a plane crash in India with only one survivor shook him. "There are no right words for moments like this, but I wanted to acknowledge it," he said. "These events don't just make headlines. They leave a lasting echo in the lives of those who've lived through something similar." The Source This report includes information from The Associated Press, Fox News, CBS News, and WJBK-TV's 1987 coverage of the crash.
The Irish Sun
13-06-2025
- General
- The Irish Sun
Girl left ‘tasting jet fuel' in ocean & horror 2-mile fall – miraculous plane crash survivors…& why guilt haunts victims
SOMETIMES, in the midst of disaster, miracles happen. Just moments after taking off, 13 Vishwash Ramesh is the lone survivor of the devastating Air India crash that happened yesterday Credit: HT Photo 13 The flight, bound for the UK, came crashing down into buildings shortly after take-off Credit: Getty 13 Footage captured the terrifying moment the Air India flight crashed into the ground Credit: x/nchorAnandN 13 It was initially thought all 242 on board had been killed Credit: Twitter Astonishing footage showed Brit He was even able to produce his boarding pass before being whisked off to hospital, where he is being treated for minor injuries to his chest, eyes, and feet. Given the scale of disaster when plane crashes happen, it is very rare only There are only a handful of people who can say they were lucky enough to be the sole survivor. But many are left with scars - both physical and mental - traumatised by memories of plummeting from the sky, and haunted by the sudden loss of their family members. Speaking to the media shortly after his miraculous survival was confirmed, Vishwash said: 'Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. 'It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me. " Dr Marianne Trent, clinical psychologist and author of the Grief Collection, said Vishwash is likely to suffer from survivors guilt. She said: "There's no real sense why that should have been the one seat where the sole survivor sat. "People often swap seats on planes and he might have a sense of 'why me?'" Brit survivor WALKS AWAY unscathed from Air India plane crash after jumping from flaming jet 'America's Orphan' Vishwash isn't the only person to have walked away from a plane crash, losing family members in the process. At just four years old, Cecelia Crocker became the sole survivor when Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just moments after taking off from Detroit, in 1987. The other 154 people on board were killed, as were two people on the ground. But Cecelia Crocker survived - becoming known as 'America's Orphan'. "I think about the accident every day," said Crocker, now 42. "It's kind of hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror. I have visual scars, my arms and my legs and I have scars on my forehead." 13 At just four years old, Cecelia Crocker was the only survivor in a 1987 plane crash in which she lost all her family Credit: Sole Survivor 13 It is believed Cecelia's mum shielded her during the crash Credit: Sole Survivor 13 Cecelia in the hospital as a four-year-old after the crash Credit: AP Though Cecelia doesn't remember the incident herself, her mum, dad, and six-year-old brother David were all killed. It is believed that Cecelia's mum, Paula, shielded her. "When I realised I was the only person to survive that plane crash, I was maybe in middle school, high school maybe," Crocker said. "Being an adolescent and confused, so it was just extra stress for me. I remember feeling angry and survivor's guilt. Why didn't my brother survive? Why didn't anybody? Why me?" Dr Trent added that these feelings can linger on for years and affect every aspect of their lives. "You might not feel worthy of people's good thoughts and sympathy because you're not the one who died,' she said. There's a black hole between the moment when I was seated in the plane and the moment I found myself in the water Bahia Bakari "People with survivor's guilt withdraw into themselves, their world becomes smaller, there's an impact on their functioning, their ability to get things done.' Clinging for life Back in 2009, a Yemenia Airways flight plummeted into the Indian Ocean with its engines at full throttle. All 152 on board were killed - except 12-year-old She was left drifting in the water for hours with 'the taste of jet fuel' in her mouth, and only a piece of debris to cling on to. Speaking to a French court, she recalled the moment things started to go wrong. 'I started to feel the turbulence but nobody was reacting much, so I told myself it must be normal,' said Bahia. 'I felt something like an electric shock go through my body. There's a black hole between the moment when I was seated in the plane and the moment I found myself in the water.' 13 Bahia Bakari miraculously survived by clinging onto wreckage when she was aged just 12 Credit: AFP 13 The Yemenia Airways flight plummeted into the Indian Ocean Credit: AFP 13 Bahia spoke out about her experience for the first time in a French courtroom Credit: AP She remembers trying to climb up on to the wreckage, but lacked the strength to do so in the choppy waters. It was only in the hospital that she was told she was the lone survivor. Jungle fall Others who survived found themselves not in the water but in thick jungle - yet just as far from civilisation as anyone stuck in the ocean. Aged just 17, she survived not only a two-mile fall to the ground but a ten day trek through the Amazon. After flying into a dark cloud, her plane became engulfed by lightning, she recalled. I was in freefall. I could see the canopy of the jungle spinning towards me Juliane Koepcke 'My mother and I held hands but we were unable to speak. Other passengers began to cry and weep and scream,' she told the BBC. 'My mother said very calmly: 'That is the end, it's all over'. Those were the last words I ever heard from her. 'The plane jumped down and went into a nose-dive,' added Juliane. 'It was pitch black and people were screaming, then the deep roaring of the engines filled my head completely. 'Suddenly the noise stopped and I was outside the plane. I was in freefall. I could see the canopy of the Alone with a broken collarbone and deep cuts to her legs, and wearing only a short, sleeveless mini-dress and white sandals, she began to walk. 13 Juliane Koepcke trekked through the Amazon for ten days aged just 17 13 Annette Herfkens spent eight days in the Vietnamese jungle after her plane hit a mountain ridge Credit: Refer to Caption 13 Jim Polehinke was the only survivor of the 2006 Comair crash - in which he was co-pilot Credit: YouTube Only a small bag of sweets kept her from total starvation. Initially thinking she was hallucinating, Juliane came across a boat and a hut where she spent the night, pulling maggots out of a wound in her upper arm, before finally a group of men found her the next day and took her back to civilisation. Broken bones and collapsed lung Juliane's story has parallels to that of Annette Herfkens, who, aged 31, spent eight days in the Vietnamese jungle by herself awaiting rescue. After Vietnam Airlines flight 474 dropped from the sky in 1992, killing the other 30 people on board, Annette was left with twelve broken bones, her jaw hanging off and a collapsed lung. How miracle Brit may face mental battle THOUGH lucky to be alive, Brit Vishwash Kumar Ramesh may struggle with the mental impact of yesterday's Air India crash for decades, Dr Marianne Trent, clinical psychologist, told The Sun. "Post trauma people often struggle to sleep, have intrusive thoughts and there will be triggers such as noises and smells of the fire, the smoke, booking future holidays," she said. "All those stories of the people he met along the way, or maybe those he didn't take the time to talk to, will be replaying in his mind. He will be second guessing everything he did." Dr Trent said he may even feel guilt that he walked away with minor injuries. She said: "He may just feel grateful to survive and have walked away but it's very strange that only one person survived. "We need to allow him to feel what he's feeling. Survivors of fatal car crashes who escaped with minor injuries might wish they'd broken a leg or had something physical to show for their life changing experience. "They might ask 'why don't I look different.. How can I look like the same person?' It's harder for people to empathise if you look the same way too." Dr Trent added that memories of his brother might be forever entwined with the horror of the crash. "His experience will be overlapped by grief and trauma. "Usually if you think of a brother there are thoughts about songs you might have heard growing up together, or things you did, nice memories. "But when someone dies the whole relationship changes and those thoughts can make you feel really awful and send you right down into the depths again. "The fact this is all being played out on an international stage will also be extremely hard for him and he will need a lot of psychological help to come to terms with what has happened." Her plane had crashed into a mountain ridge and she now lay surrounded by the ripped-apart fuselage, with a dead stranger across her. 'That's where you have fight or flight - I definitely chose flight,' she told the Guardian. 'I stayed in the moment. I trusted that they were going to find me. I didn't think, 'What if a tiger comes?' I thought, 'I'll deal with it when the tiger comes.' I didn't think, 'What if I die?' I thought, 'I will see about it when I die.'' Crawling along by her elbows, she managed to capture water with parts of the plane's insulation until a rescue party carried her down in a hammock. Self-harm pain In all these cases, only one passenger made it out alive. But when the plane's pilot is the sole person spared death, the feelings of survivor's guilt can be even worse. The bad voice says, 'No, stay here, have another shot of liquor' Jim Polehinke Jim Polehinke was co-pilot aboard Com Air flight 5191, which crashed seconds after takeoff from Lexington, Kentucky in 2006. 'I've cried harder than any man has ever cried, or any man should be able to cry,' he said. 'My wife was there to support me to where I could just put my head on her shoulder and cry. 'It's that constant struggle where my inner voice wants to keep going forward. "The good voice says, 'Yeah, come on, you have the inner strength to do that,' but the bad voice says, 'No, stay here, have another shot of liquor.'' Dr Trent also highlighted how harmful behaviours can become a crutch for people to deal with survivor's guilt. She said: "Sometimes people become a risk to themselves through non intentional self injury, drinking too much, not showing and looking after themselves, taking recreational drugs to cope.'
NBC News
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
‘I met my younger self for a coffee' poem becomes cathartic trend for TikTok users
Jennae Cecelia imagines that meeting her 15-year-old self for coffee would be a cathartic experience, even if her younger self would probably show up late, wearing sweatpants. 'She lets out a sigh and has a good cry, I tell her to release her feelings one at a time,' Cecelia, 30, wrote in a poem that she posted to TikTok earlier this month. Her words — which will be featured in her upcoming book, 'Deep in My Feels' — have inspired a trend on TikTok, where people are posting their own versions of what they think would happen if they caught up with their past selves. There are 16 million posts that appear under the ' Coffee with My Younger Self' page on TikTok as of Friday, with many users sharing videos with text that begins 'I met my younger self for coffee.' The posts often use a clip of the song 'Sweet Heat Lightning' by Gregory Alan Isakov. For Cecelia, writing the poem was a way for her to embody 'my present self meeting back up with my past self and be the person for her that she didn't have at that time.' She said she has been pleasantly surprised that others are now using her poetry as a way to heal and reflect on their own memories. 'Some people have chosen to go the really, really deep route of talking about healing with their past self, and some people have kind of made it more lighthearted,' Cecelia said. 'So it's just been really fun to see just each direction that people have taken with it.' The videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok — with even 'Shark Tank' judge and entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran getting in on the trend by sharing her journey from waitressing to becoming the 'Queen of New York Real Estate.' In the videos, trend participants reflect on topics like body image, career planning, housing, relationships with parents and romantic relationships with partners. Sundas Raza, 21, a spoken word artist who lives in Cardiff, Wales, believes the trend's popularity partially stems from people wanting to heal their inner child. 'It's easier to practice self-love when you're speaking to a child — in this case someone's internal child — than an adult,' said Raza, who put a twist on the trend by reading her poem aloud rather than writing it as text over video. 'So I think by doing this trend, people are able to give themselves that love in the form of seeing themselves as younger.' Some who have posted videos said writing their own version of the 'coffee poem' has been a way to celebrate their accomplishments, large and small. Others said it has been a way for them to let go of past hopes and dreams. 'I think it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of life, and then seeing a trend like that kind of forced me to step back and, like, reflect on how far I've come,' said Giselle Ortega, 23, who also participated in the trend. In her video, she recalls her younger self's coffee order (an iced mocha with two creams) versus her current order (an iced coffee with 'just almond milk please'). Her younger self would talk about how much she couldn't wait to get out of her hometown, and her older self would say how she's been enjoying her new home city, Boston. 'I hope we meet for coffee again,' the end of her poem states.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harith Iskander's ‘ham' joke: IGP confirms 21 questions asked as cops record retired nurse Cecelia Yap's statement
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — Police have recorded a statement from Facebook user Cecelia Yap Song KL to assist in investigations regarding her comment on comedian Harith Iskander's Facebook post about the 'ham' issue, which was alleged to insult Islam. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said the 65-year-old retired nurse's statement was taken from 11am to 12.30pm yesterday, according to a report published in national daily Berita Harian. He said police asked her 21 questions, during which she admitted to posting the comment on the Facebook thread in question. 'A mobile phone and SIM card were also seized to aid the investigation under Section 298 of the Penal Code, Section 505(c) of the Penal Code, and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. 'The investigation paper will be referred to the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) tomorrow for further directives,' he said when contacted yesterday. Earlier, Cecelia, who was accused of posting content deemed insulting to Islam in relation to the 'ham' issue, issued an apology. In a statement released by her legal representatives, Saibullah MV Nathan and Co, Cecelia expressed deep regret over her sensitive remark on social media and pledged full cooperation with the authorities. 'I hereby apologise to all parties offended by my comment, especially my Muslim friends whom I respect. I deeply regret my insensitive comment and promise not to repeat my actions in the future. 'Once again, I humbly apologise to all Malaysians over the incident. I ask that everyone offended by my comment would forgive my mistake,' she said. Last Tuesday, Harith Iskander, 54, reportedly posted an image of a cup of coffee named hamsap kopi priced at RM5.50. The comedian is also under investigation for a remark joking that his faith was shaken after seeing a menu advertising 'Ham Sap Coffee' because it contained the word 'ham.' A check on the celebrity's Facebook page, which has over a million followers, revealed the post was uploaded last Saturday. A total of 16 police reports have been lodged against Harith and Yap, accusing them of insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad through their social media remarks. The controversy stems from the sale of chicken ham sandwiches allegedly lacking halal certification at a convenience store in Universiti Malaya, which had ignited widespread debate.
