Small Cargo Plane Crashes Into Chicago Home, Residents Unharmed

A small plane reportedly crashed into a home in Chicago after experiencing engine difficulties at Midway airport, officials say.

The small cargo plane reportedly experienced the problems during takeoff, and subsequently crashed into a home on South Knox Avenue on the city's Southwest Side.

The husband and wife living in the small home, both in their 80's, were reportedly in the back room at the time of the crash at 2:45 a.m., and were uninjured. Neighbors, including Luz Cazares, rushed to help the elderly couple escape from the wreckage resting in their living room. One of the plane's wings extended as far as the neighbor's home.

"A big part of the airplane was in their living room," Cazares told the Chicago Tribune. "I thought they were dead."

"I ran to the back of the yard, I jumped the fence and I knocked the back door of the kitchen and she opened the door and I took her outside," the neighbor continued, adding that the wife, 82, was confused and shook up as to what had happened.

Assistant Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Michael Fox added to the Associated Press that the couple was very lucky to have survived the crash.

"It's very lucky. They were in a bedroom next to the living room and the living room is gone."

Fox added that the first responders to the scene were also fine and walked away without injury.

Recalling the early-morning incident, nearby neighbor Robin Vrablic told WBBM radio: "It wasn't a big boom noise."

"It just shook the ground, and the chandelier had shaken, or something, so we went out the front, and went down there, and I was astounded that it took the whole front of that house out."