Chicago plane crash, happened at residential area near Midway airport early Tuesday. The cargo plane hit the home of old couple, leaving the pilot dead while the couple was saved from the tragic incident.
The Chicago Fire Department has confirmed the death of the pilot who was identified as Eric Quentin Howlett, 47, from Ohio. It was around 3:00 a.m. in the morning when it hit the home of the 80-year-old couple at 6500 block of South Knox Avenue shortly after taking off from Midway around 2:45 a.m., aviation officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration official said that the pilot alarmed an emergency landing going back to the Midway airport but unfortunately the plane crashed on a two-storey home.
The Chicago plane crashed at the home in South Knox around one-quarter mile from Midway's Runway 31C swiping out the whole living room, and destructing the basement.
Luckily, the elderly couple survived and was not even harmed. It was only eight inches away from the room where the couple was sleeping, Chicago Fire Chief Michael Fox said.
When the Chicago plane crash occurred, a neighbor of the couple for over 20 years named Luz Cazares, 62, rushed to the destructed home to check the elderly couple. Initially she thought they didn't survived, who were both afraid and had no idea to what had happened.
"They're okay. She's a little confused right now," Rick Rolinskas, son of the couple told reporters. "All the neighbors have been real nice to us. We're just trying to get all the valuables out, and clothes, and get organized, and see where we've got to go from here."
The Chicago plane crash brought enormous destruction to the home of the couple. It was already 9:15 a.m. when the crew was able to dig the wreckage to recover the pilot's body. The National Transportation Safety Board investigator Tim Sorensen was also there to document the accident.
Sorensen added that they are looking on the possibility if the frigid weather had caused the plane crash. They are also inspecting issues such as the purity of the fuel and the weight of the cargo plane that could lead to the Chicago plane crash.
There was no reported explosion or fire on the incident although the National Transportation Safety Board crew had reported gas leakage from the wreckage.
The Aero Commander 500 is supposed to be headed at the Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling. But Howlett has informed a change of route instead to Ohio State University Airport in Columbus. He then reported an engine trouble shortly after takeoff.
Howlett was a pilot instructor before he was hired in the Kansas City-based aviation cargo company a month ago before the Chicago plane crash incident happened.