MAYBEE - It was five years ago today that a small, ice-covered commuter plane crashed into a field in Raisinville Township, killing all 26 passengers and three crew members aboard.

No overt signs are left to mark the site of the crash of Comair Flight 3272 - just a home and a field that blend into the flat Monroe County landscape. A small memorial erected in a cemetery two townships away is the only permanent fixture to remind residents of those who died that blustery winter day in January, 1997.

The government eventually blamed the crash on the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to institute aggressive rules regulating aircraft de-icing.

Litigation filed by the families of the victims seeking compensation for the loss of their loved ones is over, with settlements paid out said to be in excess of $100 million.

And this afternoon another Comair flight - this one bearing a different flight number and operating a different type of equipment - will take off from Cincinnati and fly to Detroit Metro Airport, just as Flight 3272 was supposed to do.

In short, nearly the only things left to mark the anniversary of the tragic crash are the memories of their survivors and the Monroe County residents who tried to help them.

The informal memorial service, which will start at 3:30 p.m. in LaSalle Township's Roselawn Memorial Park, will include a moment of silence at 3:55 p.m., marking five years to the moment that Comair 3272 crashed.

The service will take place in front of the memorial dedicated to the victims of the crash, a memorial that has seen its share of mourning and remembrance over the last five years.

Covered in ice and snow, the memorial is bedecked with mementos and pictures of the crash's victims.

A garland hangs lazily around four small shrubs, while holiday ornaments sway in the breeze from the branches of two small flowering trees.

Today will mark the first time Arlene Miasel of Prior Lake, Minn., attends the annual memorial service.

She has visited the crash site and Roselawn Cemetery at least twice a year since the crash. The mother of Flight 3272's pilot, Dann Carlsen, Mrs. Miasel has channeled her grief in other directions, becoming a board member of the National Air Disaster Alliance Foundation. Still, she said, not a day goes by that she doesn't remember her oldest son.

“I don't know how this is going to go,” Mrs. Miasel said by telephone from her home. “This is the first time I've tried to come on the anniversary of the crash.”

Moving on with life has been an ongoing struggle, Mrs. Miasel said.

“I'm probably as good as I'll ever be. I've lost my son,” she said, her voice full of melancholy. “He's with me every single day.”

Not all the victims of Flight 3272 were on the airplane, however.

The crash took a huge mental toll on the scores of volunteer firefighters from across Monroe County whose job it was to sort through the wreckage and recover remains.

Specially trained counselors were called in to help these men and women overcome the horror of what they had seen in that field.

Time may not heal all wounds, Ida fire Chief Ed Wertenberger said, but it does at least help to cover them up.

“They talk a lot about it now, way more freely than they used to,” Chief Wertenberger said of the men under his command who were among the first to arrive at the crash site five years ago. “I think it's basically healed itself.”

Chief Wertenberger, who struggled, along with his men, to return to normal after the Comair crash, said he probably won't attend the memorial service, preferring instead to move on with his life.

Still, while the emotional wounds may be covered, the scars remain close enough to the surface that certain things still can bring them back.

“The New York thing brought back a lot,” Chief Wertenberger said of the Sept. 11 attacks. “Nine of us went [to New York] to help.”

First Published January 9, 2002, 4:22 p.m.