In a daring incident that took place on Friday evening, a small plane crashed into Busse Woods near O'Hare International Airport. Miraculously, the pilot was able to walk away from the wreckage without any life-threatening injuries. This near-fatal event has gripped the attention of people not just for the crash itself, but also due to the heroic actions of a Good Samaritan who stepped up to help the pilot in those critical moments.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 200 crashed in the southeastern section of Ned Brown Preserve, popularly known as Busse Woods, near the Main Dam, around 7:15 p.m. The Cook County Forest Preserve informed that the pilot was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and no one else was on board the plane at the time of the crash. The reason behind the crash has not been determined yet.
In an interesting turn of events, a quick-thinking Good Samaritan named Isaiah Grass rushed to the pilot's aid after witnessing the crash, as reported by NBC Chicago. Grass, who was walking in the forest preserve at the time, heard a large boom and instinctively started running towards the source of the noise. After hearing from two passing bikers that a plane might have crashed, Grass ventured into the woods to see if he could help.
Upon discovering the heavily damaged plane and ensuring the pilot was relatively unharmed, Grass used the pilot's phone to call 911 and stayed with him until emergency services arrived. Recounting his experience to NBC Chicago, he said, "You couldn't hear a propeller, you couldn't hear trees, all you heard was a tree snap and a boom, and that's it." Grass' courageous actions undoubtedly played a significant role in the pilot's survival.
The Forest Preserves of Cook County police, local emergency personnel, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board are all investigating the incident.
