Luz Cazares woke Tuesday morning to a loud crash and the sight of a plane's tail sticking out from the home of her neighbors, a couple in their 80s, just blocks from Midway Airport.
Police officers went into the home and brought out her husband, and the couple were taken to the home of another neighbor, Jeanine Venckus. "Not a scratch on them, not a scratch," Venckus said. "They're shook up and bewildered."
The pilot of the twin-engine cargo plane was dead on the scene, but it took firefighters hours to shore up the home and recover the body of Eric Quentin Howlett, 47. "The floor of the living room collapsed into the basement," said Chicago fire Chief Michael Fox.
Howlett was the only person aboard when the plane crashed into the Rolinskases' home in the 6500 block of South Knox Avenue shortly after taking off from Midway around 2:45 a.m., aviation officials said.
The plane went down about a quarter of a mile from the airport, crashing through the front of the Rolinskases' home and coming to rest in the living room, its tail wedged against the roof of a neighboring house. The plane hit the right side and front of the house, 8 inches from where the couple were sleeping in a bedroom on the left side of the home, according to neighbors and fire officials.
Their son, Rick Rolinskas, said his parents both have Alzheimer's and that they are now staying with a neighbor across the street.
