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By Michelle Keller
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 12, 2007, 8:02 PM CST
Living in the shadow of Midway Airport, Archer Heights residents are used to ignoring the roar of planes overhead. But the loud thud that appeared to come from inside Dorothy Gohn's house early Friday woke her with a start.
Flicking on her bedroom light around 1:15 a.m., she noticed a round piece of metal just two feet away from the foot of her bed and a gaping hole the size of a softball in her ceiling. Plaster and insulation were scattered around the room.
Federal aviation officials have confirmed that the piece of metal that pierced Gohn's shingled roof early Friday was a turbine wheel from the engine of a cargo plane on its way to landing at Midway.
The aircraft, which had departed Michigan at 12:45 a.m., underwent "uncontained engine failure on approach," when one of the engines lost the turbine wheel, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, FAA spokeswoman, in a statement.
The turbine wheel holds the turbine blades in the engine.
But to Gohn, who lives with her cocker spaniel Freckles in the 5100 block of South Tripp Avenue, the piece of metal was a mystery.
"I tried to pick it up, but it was so hot, I couldn't touch it," said Gohn, who said she is in her 70s. "It was so heavy."
The metal object left two saucer-size marks on her carpet, burning straight through the padding.
"I thought it was something in the ceiling," Gohn said Friday morning. "There was the smell of burnt wire, so I thought maybe it was an electrical problem."
But Gohn thought little of it and crawled back into bed. In the morning, she called her neighbor, Jim Schuermann, 53, who helped her figure out the origin of the object.
Schuermann offered to take a look at her crawl space to see if the object had pierced the roof, then he "put two and two together" and guessed it came from a plane, he said.
Officials said the aircraft that dropped the part is registered to a Watkins, Colo.-based company, American Check Transport, which operates as Flight Line Inc. The plane suffered significant engine damage and some wing damage, but FAA officials said the pilot did not indicate any distress to the flight control tower.
The aircraft landed safely, officials said. But the pilot should have reported the engine failure to authorities, said Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman.
Instead, FAA inspectors found the plane themselves, in a hangar at Midway, he said.
American Check Transport company executives declined to comment Friday, a spokeswoman said.
FAA officials said they will interview the pilot, examine the engine and review radar data and air traffic tapes.
This isn't the first time airplane parts have fallen from Chicago skies. In 2002, a part from a Southwest Airlines plane hit a home in the 8500 block of South Rockwell Street, knocking shingles from the roof before bouncing onto a gangway.
As for Gohn, despite the burn marks on her carpet and the media frenzy created by the airplane part, she doesn't plan to move anytime soon.
"I've been living here since 1978 and nothing like this has ever happened," Gohn said. "Somebody is watching over us."
The Associated Press and Tribune staff reporter Dan P. Blake contributed to this report.
[email protected]
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 12, 2007, 8:02 PM CST
Living in the shadow of Midway Airport, Archer Heights residents are used to ignoring the roar of planes overhead. But the loud thud that appeared to come from inside Dorothy Gohn's house early Friday woke her with a start.
Flicking on her bedroom light around 1:15 a.m., she noticed a round piece of metal just two feet away from the foot of her bed and a gaping hole the size of a softball in her ceiling. Plaster and insulation were scattered around the room.
Federal aviation officials have confirmed that the piece of metal that pierced Gohn's shingled roof early Friday was a turbine wheel from the engine of a cargo plane on its way to landing at Midway.
The aircraft, which had departed Michigan at 12:45 a.m., underwent "uncontained engine failure on approach," when one of the engines lost the turbine wheel, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, FAA spokeswoman, in a statement.
The turbine wheel holds the turbine blades in the engine.
But to Gohn, who lives with her cocker spaniel Freckles in the 5100 block of South Tripp Avenue, the piece of metal was a mystery.
"I tried to pick it up, but it was so hot, I couldn't touch it," said Gohn, who said she is in her 70s. "It was so heavy."
The metal object left two saucer-size marks on her carpet, burning straight through the padding.
"I thought it was something in the ceiling," Gohn said Friday morning. "There was the smell of burnt wire, so I thought maybe it was an electrical problem."
But Gohn thought little of it and crawled back into bed. In the morning, she called her neighbor, Jim Schuermann, 53, who helped her figure out the origin of the object.
Schuermann offered to take a look at her crawl space to see if the object had pierced the roof, then he "put two and two together" and guessed it came from a plane, he said.
Officials said the aircraft that dropped the part is registered to a Watkins, Colo.-based company, American Check Transport, which operates as Flight Line Inc. The plane suffered significant engine damage and some wing damage, but FAA officials said the pilot did not indicate any distress to the flight control tower.
The aircraft landed safely, officials said. But the pilot should have reported the engine failure to authorities, said Tony Molinaro, an FAA spokesman.
Instead, FAA inspectors found the plane themselves, in a hangar at Midway, he said.
American Check Transport company executives declined to comment Friday, a spokeswoman said.
FAA officials said they will interview the pilot, examine the engine and review radar data and air traffic tapes.
This isn't the first time airplane parts have fallen from Chicago skies. In 2002, a part from a Southwest Airlines plane hit a home in the 8500 block of South Rockwell Street, knocking shingles from the roof before bouncing onto a gangway.
As for Gohn, despite the burn marks on her carpet and the media frenzy created by the airplane part, she doesn't plan to move anytime soon.
"I've been living here since 1978 and nothing like this has ever happened," Gohn said. "Somebody is watching over us."
The Associated Press and Tribune staff reporter Dan P. Blake contributed to this report.
[email protected]
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
