Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

O'Hare critic uses fallen plane flap to make point

Oct 20, 2000

October 18, 2000

BY ROBERT C. HERGUTH TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
Chicago Sun -Times

There's quite a flap in Wood Dale.

A wing flap that fell off a plane approaching O'Hare Airport on Tuesday is causing a stir because the 5-by-3-foot chunk landed in the backyard of a Wood Dale home--a home that belongs to a local alderman and vocal critic of airport noise and expansion.

"It does make me mad, because we're constantly being preached to that things are getting better, that we need more flights at O'Hare," Ald. David
Tolemy (4th) said today. "Yeah, you need more flights, until what? Until something like this? Or somebody gets hurt or killed?"
"It's scary in the sense that if one of my family members was outside, this could have fallen on them and they could have been hurt," said Tolemy,
47, who lives in the Grove Avenue ranch house with his wife and two children.
"On the other hand, it's kind of ironic because just the other day I was saying we need to resolve this whole issue with the airport."

The flap fell from a 34-year-old Boeing 727 being used by the U.S. Marshal's Service to pick up prisoners, officials said. The aircraft came from
Detroit and was supposed to fly to Rochester, Minn., after O'Hare, said Chicago Aviation Department spokeswoman Monique Bond.

The plane apparently had no trouble landing, and the flap was discovered missing by one of the pilots while the aircraft was on the ground,
officials said. A west suburban resident also reported hearing or seeing an object
fall from a plane in the early afternoon. "I guess on final approach, that's when the incident occurred," Bond said.

Tolemy's home is under a flight path. He said his daughter spotted the flap, which helps create drag so a plane can slow down while landing, in the backyard. A smaller piece was found in a backyard nearby. Federal Aviation Administration employees retrieved the pieces after combing the
neighborhood after the reports.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator David Bowling said the flap weighs about 100 pounds. Investigators will try to determine why the flap fell.

"Granted, this time nobody got hurt," Bowling said. "Had they been coming in from the east, this thing could have fallen on the Kennedy [Expy.]."