Chicago plane crash: 3 Pakistani-American physicians killed

WASHINGTON: Three US physicians of Pakistani origin were killed Sunday night in a plane crash in a dense Chicago suburban neighbourhood. Authorities believed the pilot had desperately tried to land in a vacant plot to minimize damage. The twin-engine Beechcraft Baron crashed in Palos Hills, Illonois, shortly after takeoff from Chicago Midway Airport for Lawrence, Kansas, said Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration. According to US media reports, Palos Hills Deputy Police Chief James Boie said given the spot where the plane crashed and statements by neighbours – who told authorities it appeared the plane was circling before it crashed – make it a real possibility that the pilot tried to save the lives of people in the neighborhood. “I’d like to think that,” he said. “That is the only vacant plot in four blocks.”Tausif Rehman, 34, a neurosurgeon, flew to Chicago to visit a friend. Accompanying Rehman were Ali Kanchwala, 36, a close friend and a pulmonologist and Kanchwala’s wife, Maria Javaid, 37, a cardiologist in Kansas City, Kansas.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2014.