The closure of Meigs Field (for security reasons, remember?) has been implicated in an incident that gave a Chicago baseball stadium full of people a collective case of the jitters. The FAA is investigating whether an ATA Boeing 737-800 was dangerously (or illegally) low when it passed over U.S. Cellular Field on approach to Midway Airport on Thursday. According to CBS 2 Chicago, the closure of Meigs eliminated restricted airspace that had previously kept aircraft approaching Midway away from the stadium. Of course, that doesn’t really explain why the 737 was, according to the FAA, just 700 feet AGL when it was still 6.5 miles from the runway. Baseball announcer Ken Harrelson has no doubt the plane was unusually low. “I guarantee you, if there were passengers on that plane, they may have been able to see the numbers on the guys’ backs on the field,” Harrelson told the TV station. “I have never seen a plane, in all the years that we have been there, an airplane that low,” he said. “And it scared me, it really did.”
Meigs Closure Cited In Airliner Scare
Key Takeaways:
- An ATA Boeing 737-800 flew unusually and potentially dangerously low over U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago while on approach to Midway Airport, causing alarm among witnesses.
- The FAA is investigating the incident, noting the plane was 700 feet AGL at 6.5 miles from the runway.
- The closure of Meigs Field is implicated as a factor, having eliminated restricted airspace that previously diverted aircraft away from the stadium, though the plane's extreme low altitude suggests a more significant issue.
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