Legal battle over 1996 Palwaukee crash ends

A 12-year legal battle resulting from a 1996 plane crash ended for Chicago Executive Airport this week.

The Wheeling village board last week and the Prospect Heights City Council on Tuesday signed off an a $6 million settlement that officially ends the long ordeal.

The lawsuit stemmed from a crash on Oct. 30, 1996, that killed four people. Arthur F. Quern, 54, of Evanston; the pilot Martin L. Koppie, 53, of Elgin; co-pilot Robert Whitener, 50, of St. Charles; and flight attendant Catherine Mio-Anderson, 33, of Wheeling, all died after the plane crashed shortly after takeoff and went up in flames.

Those involved in the lawsuits agreed this would be the final one from the incident.

"There will be no more lawsuits. This is the end of the road," said Brandt Madsen, attorney for the airport.

The money, paid out by the airport's insurance company, will go toward damage of the airplane, a Gulfstream IV jet.

Madsen said the litigation included multiple lawsuits, including those filed on behalf of the families. All those have been settled in past years.

Not all of those cases involved the airport, but the trials brought out opinions that Chicago Executive Airport was liable in part because of a narrow runway and a drainage ditch near the site of the crash.

The blame has also been spread to the pilot, co-pilot, Alberto-Culver and Aon, who hired the pilots.

"It's unfortunate there was loss of life," said Dennis Rouleau, airport manager. "The airport community is saddened by that."

The airport also experienced an outcry from neighboring residents after the accident since the plane skidded within 20 feet of Foxboro apartments. Residents pushed for more safety initiatives from the airport.

Rouleau said Chicago Executive Airport has responded to that since 1996, but had been working to improve safety standards long before then.

"We're been making significant changes since we were purchased in 1986," he said, referring to when the two municipalities purchased it from Priester Aviation, which had owned it previously. "Since then we've widened the runway, we've added some parallel taxiways. We're constantly improving the safety of the airport."