Removing plane from Naperville fitness center a first for demolition crew

When workers at Break Thru Demolition in Lombard were asked Wednesday if they could remove the private plane that crashed into XSport Fitness in Naperville, it wasn't the biggest job the company had tackled.

But it was, Superintendent Jason Kohnhorst said, one of the oddest.

“That was definitely a first, he said.

The crew of five arrived around 5 p.m. Wednesday, just after other workers finished emptying leaking fuel from the aircraft. But since this was a new job for the group with no typical protocol, Break Thru workers had to be creative.

“We knew right away the roof had to come off to get the plane out without any type of incident, said Kohnhorst, “And since everyone wanted this fixed immediately, we had to figure out how we could do this in the quickest way possible.

The answer was tricky, because a wing was severed from the rest of the plane and was on the brink of falling. . So crews used a crane to hold the wing in place, while cutting away the walls where the wing rested. Then, they were able to peel away the roof and remove the rest of the plane.

Two extra workers came in to lend a hand, because the initial crew worked a nearly 24-hour shift. A roofing crew arrived at noon Thursday in hopes of getting the fitness center back in shape for its clients.

“We've done bigger jobs, like 24 floors (which were gutted for remodeling) at the Blackstone Hotel (in Chicago), which is a historic landmark and proved tough because there was so much preservation involved, said Kohnhorst. “But this was just unusual.