Mahdi Abdelquader was driving his tow truck north on Central Avenue when the image of the Boeing 737–Southwest Airlines Flight 1248–flashed across his snowy windshield.
“There was a loud noise, and it came out like it was like in the movies. I was praying to God,” he said.
The plane, which moments before was on a runway at Midway Airport, was now sliding toward the middle of 55th Street and Central, according to fire officials. It would stop there, but not before hitting two small cars, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring at least 11 others.
“It hit the white car and dragged it and hit the pole,” Abdelquader said.
“The lady in the car,” he added. “She asked us to help her.”
But there was a problem.
“The airplane had the car pinned under the wing near the engine,” Abdelquader said.
“We were talking to the captain and it smelled like fuel, and the captain said we should get the passengers out of the plane,” he said, speaking to the Tribune at a hospital, where he was being treated for an ankle injury. “I was thinking in a minute, the plane’s going to blow up.”
Such a catastrophe has been a longtime fear of Garfield Ridge residents, who live in the shadow of Midway Airport’s north portion. They said they are used to seeing planes coming and going. But always intheback of their minds, they worry about a plane crashing into their homes or on their block.
Still, they were not prepared for the sight they saw Thursday.
“We just see the planes go by. You never see them on the ground and crashed liked this,” said Lisa Wilk, 23, who ran from her home about five blocks from the airport’s edge after her father told her he heard “a boom.”
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“We looked and saw the plane just sitting out there,” she said.
Maria Genualdi said that from her apartment at 55th Street and Luna Avenue the plane “sounded like a huge snowplow scraping up my street.”
It was no plow. Out her window she saw dozens of people rushing to the corner. She and her fiance ran to the corner, where they saw police warning people about leaking jet fuel.
“If it was on this side” of the intersection, she said, “it would probably have knocked over my apartment building.”
Natalie Joanna lives on South Luna Avenue, less than a block from the crash site
“We were shocked,” she said. “I guess it could happen anywhere. Our houses are right here.”
Fernando Ruiz, 44, whose house is in the 5400 block of South Central Avenue, was shoveling snow with his wife when the plane pushed through the fence separating the airport from the streets.
“The first thing I heard was the sirens,” Ruiz said. “There’s a metal fence right around the corner, and the plane went right through the fence. It’s not chain-link, more like a sheet-metal fence.
“With all this snow, it was probably slippery enough that he was already braking, but he skidded.”
Al Sadovi, 46, has lived at South Archer and South Central Avenues for about 20 years and has always felt that the fence created a problem–no one on the road would be able to see when a plane was headed toward them.
“And I always thought if a plane starts skidding, you’re a sitting duck,” he said.