KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three people died in a small plane crash in the Chicago suburb of Palos Hills, Illinois on Sunday night.
Stormont-Vail HealthCare Center in Topeka identified two of the three victims as neurosurgeon Dr. Tausif Rehman, pulmonologist Dr. Ali Kanchwala, and Dr. Kanchwala’s wife, Dr. Maria Javaid, an interventional cardiologist at Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
According to the FAA’s website, that plane was headed back to Lawrence Sunday night and is registered to Dr. Rehman.
First, the tower at Chicago’s Midway International Airport lost contact with the pilot of the twin-engine plane. Then neighbors living in a Palos Hills subdivision heard the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board has said there were no obvious reasons why the plane crashed.
“I just heard a ‘wheee’ and then ‘boom’ just a thump and it shook the house, it was pretty powerful,” said Derek Kasperski, a witness.
Richard Gray Sr. was walking down the street at the time and saw the plane go down.
“I heard a sound like an engine or something sputtering, then all the sudden I heard a big ‘ol crash and I seen this plane, it hit some trees and scattered all over the place and kind of grabbed the situation. I saw some body parts ahead spread all over the place,” he recalled.
It was just before 11 Sunday night when police say the small plane, obviously in trouble, crashed into some trees, landing in a small field, just a few feet from several homes. witnesses say it was as though the pilot was trying to avoid those homes.
“Walked over, saw parts of the plane and you know, I’m still feeling pretty fortunate to be alive because if that was a bigger plane, you know, couple hundred passengers definitely would have been hit, probably more people severely injured,” Richard Gray Jr. said.
