Small plane crashes in Roselle while trying to land at Schaumburg Airport; no injuries reported
Flight school instructor and student walked away from crash, officials said
ROSELLE, Ill. (WLS) -- A small plane crashed in the north suburbs Wednesday, shutting down roads for hours and narrowly avoiding striking cars.
Roselle officials and the Federal Aviation Administration said the single-engine Piper PA-28 crashed about 11 a.m. at Irving Park Road and Williams Street.
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"We all slammed on our brakes," said Jennifer Luciano, one of several motorists driving by at the time. "There was like a dust cloud and we comprehended that, oh my God, a plane just crashed."
Luciano sent ABC7 Chicago footage of the moment first responders helped a passenger out of the plane.
Luiciano said she was driving on Irving Park Road when the cars in front of her started slamming on their brakes, as they saw a dust cloud rising from the crashed plane.
She said it just missed power lines and homes. The pilot and passenger were seen on the street after the crash, she said. They were evaluated by Roselle paramedics, and released.
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"We're all very relieved. That was the first thing we're thinking of is making sure that people on board the aircraft were safe, and thank God they were," said Jeff Heitkamp, Chief Safety Officer for Revv Aviation, the Aurora-based flight school that owns the Piper PA-28.
Heitkamp said the plane had a flight instructor and student on board as it attempted to land at Schaumburg Airport.
"We can find another airplane at some point, but just that no one got hurt on the ground or in the air, that's what we're focused on," Heitkamp said. "We don't have too much information at this point that we can share, but we do know that they had an issue with the aircraft that prevented them from reaching the runway, so the pilot made the decision to divert to the best possible location."
The DuPage County Sheriff's Office said as the plane was descending it went into distress. It initially landed on Irving Park Road before veering into a ditch near Williams Street and nestling itself into bushes that line Jean and David Lien's front yard.
Incredibly, the couple did not hear the crash itself; instead they heard the police and fire response that followed.
"We went out on the porch and in the yard, and Dave walked towards the middle. We just saw something white and Dave said it's an airplane," Jean Lien said.
A spokesperson for the village said both the pilot and passenger were uninjured. While no official cause for the crash has been given, neighbors said they were told the plane had engine trouble.
"They were trying to land on Irving Park," said Dave Lien. "This is what we heard. They saw traffic coming so he turned off and then he hit one of the road signs on the way in and that spun him in the bushes."
While those in the neighborhood said they can't remember any other similar incidents like this in the past, they said living so close to the airport it's always been a concern that something like it would eventually happen.
"They're supposed to land and take off down Irving Park. Sometimes they go over the subdivision and they go low and they go fast. We've complained several times to Schaumburg airport about that," said homeowner Bryan Kolek.
The DuPage County Sheriff's Office along with the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. A spokesperson for the FAA said they will likely not have a preliminary report until Thursday.
"The pilots train for those scenarios, and that repetitive type of training occurs, so when something like that happens, you just react," Heitkamp said.
