Three Killed in Ill. Medical Transport Plane Crash

Nov. 29--A small airplane transporting a medical patient to the Chicago area crashed in northwest suburban Riverwoods late Monday night, killing three of the five people on board, authorities said.

Among the dead was the patient, 80-year-old John Bialek of suburban Streamwood, and his wife, Ilomae, 75, according to authorities. The plane crashed just after the pilot reported he was having a fuel problem.

The twin-engine Piper Navajo ripped apart trees and barely missed a family home as it crashed in a wooded area near Portwine and Orange Brace Roads, just north of a Lake County Forest Preserve around 10:50 p.m.

The plane, owned by Trans North Aviation, was carrying Bialek, his wife, two pilots and a flight paramedic and was headed to the Chicago Executive Airport in Wheeling, about five miles south of the crash site, according to Ron Schaberg, owner and president of the South Carolina company.

Bialek was being brought to a local medical facility for an undisclosed medical issue, Schaberg said.

The aircraft, which passed a safety inspection earlier that day, picked up Bialek from West Palm Beach, Fla. just before 6 p.m. and made a fuel stop in Jesup, Ga. before continuing on to Chicago Executive, Schaberg said. Records show the Bialeks also had a home in West Palm Beach.

But the pilot told air traffic controllers at the airport the plane was experiencing a fuel problem, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.

Speaking at the scene with reporters this morning, police and fire officials said they encountered a small fire in the aircraft and five people inside.

Authorities put out the small fire with a handheld fire extinguisher and worked to free the people, according to Chief Fred Kruger, of the Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District.

Bialek was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Medical Center in Park Ridge, where he was pronounced dead. Two others were taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, and were expected to live. Bialek's wife and another person were dead at the scene.

Authorities covered the heavily-damaged aircraft with a blue tarp and moved back a number of neighbors and onlookers as they worked to remove two bodies from the wreckage.

The plane crashed within 50 or 60 feet of a home, but didn't cause any structural damage, Kruger said.

The co-owner of the home said she and her husband felt their house shake as the aircraft flew overhead. Next she heard an indescribable noise that she later found out was the sound of trees being ripped apart by the plummeting aircraft.

"It was like you could hear destruction," the woman, who asked that her name be withheld, told the Tribune this morning.

Before she said she knew what happened, the homeowner said dozens of emergency vehicles descended on her normally quiet block.

"It's just unreal (having) a half-mile of emergency vehicles outside, it's mind-boggling. I feel sorry for the people (inside the plane)."

Schaberg said he had been in contact with the patient's son.

Schaberg expressed grief over the fatal crash, the first at his company that airlifts patients to hospitals in other states in more than 30 years, he said.

"I'm just very sorry," he said, his voice breaking. Schaberg said he planned to catch an early-morning flight to Chicago.

Investigators from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were heading to the scene, authorities said.

The deadly crash was the second to occur in the Chicago area since Saturday.

WGN-TV and WGN personality David Kaplan contibuted.

rhaggerty@tribune.com

wlee@tribune.com

Twitter: @RyanTHaggerty

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