Meigs now enjoyed by all!

This place has had more wrecks on a percentage of operations basis than
ORD.


Does it? What are the operations counts for ORD and LL22 and how many
wrecks have they had in the same time period?

Let's see, ORD does 100K's a year, LL22 maybe 10-20 a day.
During my 15 years in the area, Wrecks:
LL22-Two
ORD- an AMR jet hits the dirt, short of the rr. No injuries, but if you
miss the concrete and raise dirt clouds, thats a wreck in my book.
A decent record, but given Murphy's rule maybe a foam-er is due.

JG

So, what? How many people were killed/injured? Property damage? If the
answer is "none," then it is none of your damned business!

Well Orville Wright what do you call this?

Chicago Tribune
September 8, 2001
Author: John Chase, Tribune staff reporter.

A single-engine airplane cut electric and telephone wires Friday but
narrowly missed several homes as it skidded into a bank of trees across
the street from a firehouse near Darien.

The four people inside the six-seat Piper Saratoga escaped serious
injury even though the airplane split into several pieces before coming
to rest on forest preserve property. The plane's cabin remained intact.

"God was on their side," said Denis Vale, an off-duty Chicago police
officer who was among the first witnesses on the scene and helped yank
a passenger out of the plane seconds after it went down. "When I saw
that plane crash, I thought for sure everyone inside was dead."

Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating
the crash. The pilot, William Helwig Jr., 62, of Downers Grove, said he
had problems immediately after leaving the small airstrip that cuts
through the private Brookeridge subdivision near Darien.

"Upon takeoff, he began having engine difficulty and he tried to circle
back and land it, but he couldn't make it," said Robert Tinucci, chief
administrator with the Darien-Woodridge Fire Protection District. "We
were happy he was able to avoid any structures."

The plane went down just before noon and crashed across the street from
Darien-Woodridge's Fire Station No. 3 at 87th Street and Lemont Road.
Firefighters ran across the street and began tending to the victims,
officials said, and were quickly aided by personnel from other
firehouses and fire departments.

Helwig, an owner of the plane, was in fair condition at Good Samaritan
Hospital in Downers Grove, while his wife Charlene, 59, was treated and
released from Hinsdale Hospital. Stephen Stack, 67, of Chicago was
treated at Hinsdale Hospital and released, while his wife Lois, 53,
remained in fair condition at Good Samaritan with back pain.

Gary Weis, who lives next to the firehouse, was picking tomatoes in his
back yard when he looked over his shoulder and saw the airplane bearing
down his house.

The plane then banked left, Weis said, and avoided hitting his home by
just a few feet. A pine tree in Weis' front yard was cut in half by the
plane, bringing down phone and electric wires, which set some of his
bushes on fire.

"I think the pilot tried to avoid my house, thankfully," Weis said.

Fire officials immediately sprayed foam on the gasoline that leaked out
of the aircraft and put out the brush fires.

"They landed in a pocket between the trees and the homes and they were
lucky," Vale said.