Bodies of pilot, co-pilot recovered from jet crash site

The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot of a cargo plane that crashed Tuesday into the Des Plaines River in the Cook County Forest Preserve near Wheeling have been retrieved, but still not identified.

They were located in the aircraft's cockpit, which was underwater, Richard Waszak, chief of the Cook County Forest Preserve District, said Wednesday evening.

The bodies were to be transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office Wednesday night, where an autopsy and toxicology tests will be done.

Authorities from the medical examiner's office said the bodies would be autopsied later this morning. The identities of the two would be released after the autopsy is concluded.

Crews worked all Wednesday with tow trucks and cables to recover three-quarters of the wreckage from the water. Major pieces of the plane such as the nose, tail and both wings were recovered ahead of the snowstorm that is falling this morning.

The parts will be transported to a secure location for investigation, Waszak said.

Conditions on the ground have been challenging as the area where the plane crashed is heavily wooded and a few trees had to be removed just to get to the plane, he said.

The ground slopes down to the river, which is flowing in the middle, but frozen on the shoreline where the biggest pieces of the remains of the Learjet aircraft were submerged in water.

An official cause of the plane crash about a mile from Wheeling's Chicago Executive Airport might not be known for a year, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said.

Authorities still haven't recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the plane. It could provide some clue as to what happened when it went down, Aaron Sauer, National Transportation Safety Board senior aviation safety investigator, said at a 5 p.m. news conference at a recovery staging area near River Road and Euclid Avenue.

"It's still in the water and that will be our next objective," Sauer said. "It will be sent to Washington, D.C., for a readout."

Officials said it will probably take two to three days to gather all of the plane's pieces. Debris is scattered over a large area between the channel of the river and the bank.

Officials hope to have a preliminary report on the crash by next week. It will be posted on the NTSB Web site. A final report could take between six and 12 months.

Crews worked into the evening to recover pieces of debris from the crash site but planned to suspend efforts shortly after dark due to lack of light and worsening weather conditions. The cleanup will resume Thursday morning.

"It's been a long day for everyone involved," Sauer said.

The area east of River Road between Camp McDonald Road and Euclid Avenue is off limits to the public. River Road between Euclid and Camp McDonald remained closed Wednesday and likely will not reopen until the crash site is cleaned up.

Flight 988 was making an approach to Runway 34 when it crashed about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The multi-engine, fixed-wing plane was headed to the Wheeling airport to pick up freight to be delivered to an airport in Atlanta.

It's owner, Royal Air Freight, based in a suburb of Detroit, as of Wednesday night still had not released a statement about the crash. Royal wasn't the first owner of the jet, which the NTSB confirmed had previously been used for medical transportation.

Holloway said it was unlikely there had been a black box on the plane, noting that smaller aircraft used to carry cargo usually don't have them. A black box is a flight data recorder.

There were no mayday or distress calls from the pilot or any transmission indicating the aircraft was in trouble before it crashed.

Authorities are working with the aircraft owner to try to get the plane's maintenance records and training records of the crew.

Meanwhile, officials with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District are overseeing the cleanup of hundreds of gallons fuel that leaked from the plane after it crashed into the Des Plaines River.

A private contractor hired by the cargo company has been working since Tuesday to contain the spill, IEPA spokeswoman Maggie Carson said.

"Their primary purpose right now is setting (up) booms in the river, which has been going on since yesterday," she said. "In addition to that, they are placing these absorbent booms around the plane crash site itself should the plane lift and discharge additional fuel."

Estimates vary, but the plane may have had between 200 and 700 gallons of fuel on board, said Greg Yarnik, MWRD supervising environmental specialist.

Carson said IEPA inspectors initially observed fuel floating on the surface of the water, which has cleared.

"It appears as though there was a fairly quick response," Carson said. "Right now, it's looking like it's being managed satisfactorily."

However, since the river surface is frozen, there could be fuel underneath the ice, Yarnik said.

"The currents took the escaped jet fuel downstream," Yarnik said. "We discovered ice cover around about Golf Road and Oakton Street. If there still remains ice cover, there is undoubtedly some fuel underneath."

Presently, four sets of hydrophobic booms are in place that act as a sponge allowing water to pass underneath but collecting any oil and grease.

"Hopefully, if anything percolates downstream, we will be able to collect that and vacuum it all," Yarnik said.

Lee Filas contributed to this report