Dec 9, 2005 6:20 pm US/Central
Accident Doesn't Surprise Residents Near Midway
by Mike Puccinelli
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Midway Airport is a one-square-mile facility surrounded by homes and businesses. The neighborhood has grown up around the airport and is used to seeing planes coming in and taking off.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports that residents near 53rd and Keating aren't surprised the accident happened.
They know Midway was once the busiest airport in the world. It certainly isn't that anymore, but still is extremely busy with 150 daily departures from Southwest Airlines alone.
With all that traffic, they say it was only a matter of time until the next bad accident has happened.
Carol Krainas doesn't like the fact that her yard has become a tourist attraction, but she's resigned to that fact because she knows it's not everyday that a 737 comes to rest next to your house. She was at work when she heard the news.
"I was pretty floored, worried about my house, making sure it was still standing and I could have Christmas still," she said.
She can still have Christmas, but she said it wouldn't be the same. She said the crash has left her stomach in knots.
"I just was wishing it wouldn't have happened when I lived here because it makes you kind of nervous and sick to your stomach," she said.
She's now thnking of moving out.
Ishmael Lopez isn't thinking about moving, but he is stunned by what he saw.
"I can't believe it," he said.
Looking at a 130-foot-long, 40-foot-high plane in the middle of Central Ave. is a sight to behold. It's a sight he didn't want to see, but feared he might.
"The plane is humungous compared to that fence," he said.
Mike Apke of Midway Pro Auto says the fence is what likely prevented Thursday's tragedy from becoming a major catastrophe. He remembers when these breakaway fences were actually cement walls.
"If they had that cement wall up, that plane would have been gone. There would have been 100 deaths plus," he said.
Apke has had a business alongside the airport for 23 years. He said about once a month he watches a pilot misjudge the runway, abort the landing and try to do it again. He said he hopes the accident will be a wake-up call that the runways at Midway have to be lengthened right now.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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