Sleeping couple survive when plane hits home

CHICAGO – A small twin-engine cargo plane crashed into a home on Chicago’s southwest side Tuesday, killing the pilot but sparing a couple who were asleep just inches away from the impact.

The Aero Commander 500-B slammed nose-down into the front of the home about 2:40 a.m., punching through the ground floor into the basement and leaving about a third of the aircraft, including the tail, sticking straight out of the red-brick home.

“The wreckage was about 8 inches away from them,” Assistant Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Michael Fox said of the home’s two residents. “It’s very lucky. They were in a bedroom next to the living room, and the living room is gone.”

Both told first responders they were fine and refused medical attention.

After stabilizing the house, crews recovered the body from the wreckage. No one else was on board. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately release the pilot’s name.

The pilot reported engine trouble shortly after taking off from Midway International Airport and asked to return to the airport. But the plane crashed about a quarter mile short of the runway, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.