For the last 20 years, Mike Guerrero, of DeMotte, has maintained the land around the memorials placed roughly one mile away from the Roselawn soybean field were American Eagle Flight 4184 crashed.
As the sun set Tuesday, Guerrero worked swiftly to finish trimming the grass around the three remaining crosses next to the memorial. The grass looked freshly cut, and the smell of gas and cut grass mixed in the air.
Guerrero said he worked around the memorial Tuesday in anticipation of the 25th anniversary of the crash Thursday. The weather forecast for Wednesday and Thursday showed cold rain, not much different from the conditions the night of the crash, so Tuesday was his only option, Guerrero said.
On Oct. 31, 1994, the 64 passengers and four crew members aboard American Eagle Flight 4184 died after the plane crashed in the Roselawn soybean field. Officials have said the icy weather conditions caused the crash.
The ATR-72 turboprop was flying from Indianapolis to Chicago, and had been in a holding pattern before final descent. In that time, ice built up on the wings and caused the plane to enter a high-speed dive and crash into the soybean field at 3:57 p.m.
At first, the victim’s families placed crosses near the field to honor their loved ones, Guerrero said. For the 20th anniversary of the crash, most of the families took the crosses home and a wall was built in the area, which lists the names of the victims, he said.
Guerrero, who has no personal connection to those who died in the crash, said he offered to maintain the memorial 20 years ago after learning that a man from the Chicago area was driving to the field to do the work.
“I enjoy it. It gives me peace and comfort,” Guerrero said. “If it was one of my loved ones that passed away, I’d be grateful to who took care of it.”
The day of the crash, Guerrero said he remembers he took the day off from his construction job to watch Monday Night Football.
As Guerrero sat down to watch the Bears vs. Packers game, it was briefly interrupted by a news alert regarding a plane crash in Roselawn, he said.
In 1995, on the one-year anniversary of the crash, Guerrero said he wanted to attend the memorial to honor the victims, but that his then-young sons wanted to go trick-or-treating.
When he can no longer maintain the memorial, Guerrero said he hopes his sons can take over. If they can’t, then Guerrero said he will ask a local scouting troop to maintain the land.
Ray Chambers, who in 1994 was a volunteer firefighter for Lincoln Township and is now director of the Newton County Emergency Management Agency, was one of the many first responders who showed up to the disaster scene that cold, icy night.
Chambers said he remembers people coming to the New Newton School, where first responders gathered, to volunteer for the cleanup efforts. But, government agencies sent the volunteers away because the scene was under investigation, he said.
First responders spent two months working in the soybean field gathering evidence, he said.
“At that point in time, there was nothing we could’ve handled differently,” Chambers said.
On a national scale, the crash of Flight 4184 has led to better understanding of icing hazards for airplanes, enhanced aircraft anti-icing systems, pilot training and improved air traffic control technology, said Gregory Feith, the lead investigator of the crash.
Jennifer Stansberry Miller, whose brother was a passenger on the flight, worked with families who also lost loved ones in different plane crashes to establish what became the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996.
The act requires air carriers to have plans detailing how they will accomplish critical tasks like training support personnel, notifying family members following an accident, and returning the personal belongings of those aboard, according to Miller and the Roselawn memorial.
Feith and Miller discussed the crash and its aftermath Tuesday at a Northwest Indiana Disaster Preparedness Symposium that was themed around aviation disasters in honor of the 25-year anniversary of the Roselawn crash.
Miller’s brother, Brad Stansberry, 27, an engineer working in Kokomo, boarded Flight 4184 in Indianapolis to catch a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Germany for a work assignment, Miller said.
The weekend before the flight, Stansberry, of Anderson, spent time with family and friends, Miller said.
“(Stansberry) is definitely missed, absolutely missed. But I tell you what, I don’t think he could ever have predicted what his impact has done,” Miller said.
All the families were originally told that no remains or belongings were found, Miller said. But by Thanksgiving 1994, Miller said her family found out about a mass burial of the victims.
After piecing together photos of the crash site, Miller said her family realized they were sent body parts that were not her brother’s.
“We were sent items that were found next to his driver’s license,” Miller said.
Receiving the wrong body parts, along with miscommunication about the crash, led the Stansberry family to push for change, Miller said.
In March 1995, Miller and others who lost loved ones in a plane crash met for the first time, and they noticed similarities: misinformation, little response from airlines, unanswered questions, she said.
“This influenced the legislation. It is not me. It is not simply Roselawn. There’s no way one single event could transform an industry,” Miller said. “This was the group to push it through.”
While it is memorable that former President Bill Clinton signed the legislation, Miller said she most remembers working with the other families and rushing to airports to catch flights to meetings that she didn’t always get fair warning about.
When thinking about the crash, Miller, who was 21 at the time, said she most remembers first finding out about the crash, American Airlines calling to confirm her brother’s name was on the passenger manifest and various memorials.
“The rest of it is a blur. It really is, especially 25 years out” Miller said. “There are moments I remember well, but the day-to-day stuff is a blur.”
The “lousy weather system” forced O’Hare International Airport to space out when planes land, Feith said. Flight 4184 was asked to go into a holding pattern 10,000 feet above Roselawn, he said.
In holding, the plane was sandwiched between two cloud patterns, and as it bobbed for 30 minutes between the clouds ice began to build up on the wings, he said.
A flight attendant told the pilot that it was getting harder to push the cart down the aisle, which was likely caused by the slow speed and angle of the flight to maintain the plane’s position in the holding pattern, Feith said.
The pilot put the wings’ landing flaps into approach and lowered the nose of the plane, Feith said. What the pilot unknowingly did was change the location of where the ice was hitting the wing, which ultimately led to the crash, he said.
“A quarter inch of ice is all it took to bring this airplane down,” Feith said.
Until the Flight 4184 crash, aviation officials did not understand the dangers of freezing rain, Feith said. The crash has led to regulatory changes for certifying planes to fly in freezing rain, he said.
“These folks didn’t die in vain. Their death is tragic, unfortunately, it was untimely,” Feith said. “But through that, we have learned so many different lessons and improved aviation safety.”
