Of course it was an emergency landing. This poor guy had a total electrical
failure (lost radio contact) due to an alternator failure (probably happened
somewhere over Michigan and went unnoticed for at least an hour of flying),
bumped into bad weather which caused him to turn around, and then had engine
trouble and flight control problems getting into Meigs.

Lord, what a pilot. All of that stress and he still makes a nice, smooth
landing among rubble next to a closed runway.


"Henry Kisor" wrote in message
news:TU7Va.164284$ye4.111218@sccrnsc01...
From this morning's Chicago Sun-Times:

Plane in trouble lands safely at Meigs
July 28, 2003

BY MAUREEN O'DONNELL AND LUCIO GUERRERO Staff Reporters

It appears some folks still think Meigs Field is an airport.

A small plane in trouble landed at the shuttered airstrip Sunday,
startling
lakeside visitors and security. It's the second time this month that an
aircraft has used the former lakefront airport for an emergency landing.

The plane landed amid rubble churned up by Mayor Daley's closure of Meigs
after coming within 20 feet of the beach house roof at 12th Street Beach,
witnesses said.

The two people inside the single-engine Piper aircraft were attempting to
fly to an air show in Oshkosh, Wis., said Chicago police Sgt. Jerry Clancy
of the Summer Mobile Unit.

"They lost radio contact--they weren't sure what happened,'' Clancy said.

The fliers suspected their alternator failed, he said.

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane is
registered to a Maine company and the aircraft had taken off early Sunday
from Jackson, Mich. The pilot told the FAA that he had to make the
emergency
landing because of poor weather and electrical problems on board the
plane.

Clancy said the pair hit bad weather north of Meigs and decided to turn
around and land.

He said he witnessed "a nice, smooth landing.''

Witnesses said it was obvious the plane was in trouble.

"We saw it wobbling,'' said Joann Caccamo, 29, a production assistant from
Plainfield who was visiting Chicago's lakefront. "He was really shaky.''

"It was scary,'' she said. "We actually expected to see flames.''

Caccamo and her friends said they first noticed the plane because of the
noises it was making.

"Like sputtering, like engine problems,'' said Kitty McDonnell, 36, a
mortgage loan officer from Aurora.

The plane was flying north and then doubled back, they said. As the pilot
flew south, he flew low over the 12th Street Beach house, witnesses said.

"We thought he was going to hit the roof,'' McDonnell said.

Mayor Daley closed Meigs in the middle of the night March 30, citing
terrorism concerns. But earlier this month, a helicopter pilot brought his
craft down at Meigs after thinking he hit a bird.

As for Sunday's fliers, who are not thought to be linked to any terrorist
groups, they are on their way back east.

"They just want to go home,'' Clancy said.