Ironwood flight loses tire over Chicago

By TOM LAVENTURE

tlaventure@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood — A local pastor said humor helped to ease the nerves of air passengers after an unusual landing left them waiting in the middle of a Chicago runway.

Various media outlets in the Chicago area were reporting that the Boutique Air 835 flight on Thursday evening from Ironwood had lost a wheel on approach to O’Hare International Airport. The 6:17 p.m. landing reportedly sent sparks flying but the five passengers and two pilots aboard the single engine Pilatus PC-12 turboprop were not injured.

Boutique Air is the Essential Air Service airline that is contracted with the Gogebic-Iron County Airport. The airline assumed service in August and has several other air routes nationwide.

The Rev. Matthew Gunia, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Ironwood, was aboard the plane to visit family in his native Niles, Illinois. His wife and four children stayed behind on this trip as Gunia is also spending a week on his doctoral program in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

“Nothing seemed wrong at all, and I don’t think the pilots thought that anything was wrong either when we approached and when we landed,” Gunia said. “I thought it was a really smooth landing but we came to kind of an abrupt stop in the middle of the runway which took me by surprise.”

A fellow passenger across the aisle said he watched orange sparks emerging from under the wing as they landed. Gunia said the passenger appeared a little more nervous than he felt himself. Another younger passenger also appeared very concerned.

According to an Associated Press article the wheel had fallen from the plane about 7 miles from the airport. It landed between homes in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

“I was totally oblivious to the whole thing,” Gunia said.

After sitting on the runway for a few minutes the pilots announced that the plane needed to stay put as they believed a tire blew upon landing. They said a shuttle bus would come to retrieve them from the plane and that airport crews were searching the runway for tire debris but could not find anything.

“This was important to them because they didn’t want tire debris sucked up into a jet engine,” Gunia said. 

It was while waiting for the shuttle that Gunia posted the ordeal on his Facebook page. Friends were soon responding with links to Chicago news outlets that were reporting about a fallen aircraft wheel that landed in a Chicago neighborhood. 

Gunia said it was then that he began to realize the ordeal could have been more serious than it was. His first thoughts were to give the pilots the credit.

“They landed the plane very well and even after it was apparent to them that something was wrong they kept their cool,” Gunia said. “They didn’t seem very stressed out; they weren’t freaking out, they were very professional.”

The passenger frustration was mostly from the wait for the shuttle bus. They spent their time joking about the ordeal to ease the tension.

When a young passenger started to grow impatient and asked, “Well, where’s the shuttle bus,” Gunia responded with, “Well, it blew a tire, too,” and the passengers all laughed.

The mood was pretty good but was understandably souring as more time passed, he said. Everyone just wanted to get onto the shuttle, leave the airport and get on the road. 

The only thing unusual at that point was the presence of an airport firefighter who was there to help people step down the plane’s retracting boarding ramp.

“We just wanted to get the show on the road,” Gunia said. “Everyone handled it I think remarkably, remarkably well.”

This was Gunia’s second flight with Boutique Air. His first was from Chicago to Ironwood in August to be installed as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. This was his first flight back to Chicago.

As for his thoughts on flying again, Gunia said he is still thinking it through as he talked to the Daily Globe Friday morning. He had no problem with the incident itself, but does pause to reflect about the experience.

“I am of a divided mind,” Gunia said. “Most of me says this is fine — even when something bad happens, and how often does something happen? They handled it so well that I’m confident in their professionalism and their training. At the same time, hmm, driving sounds good to me right now.”

In the end he said, “Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.”

Officials from Boutique Air could not be reached for comment.

Various flight tracking websites report the single-turboprop Pilatus PC-12 (N451SS registration), flew a 372-mile course at an average cruising speed of 302 mph at an altitude of 23,000 feet. The plane flew south toward Chicago, before turning east over Evanston, Illinois, to approach O’Hare International from Lake Michigan.

The plane had five flights on Thursday. The first was a 5:08 a.m. flight from Ironwood to Chicago, followed by a 10:45 a.m. return flight to Ironwood. The third was the 1:51 p.m. flight to Minneapolis, and the 3:32 p.m. return flight to Ironwood. The last flight was the 4:59 p.m. flight to Chicago where it reportedly landed on time at 6:17 p.m. The flight is also listed as United Airlines Flight UA2963.

The plane has been in service with Boutique since Dec. 29, 2017. The most recent maintenance was reported as Dec. 8, 2020 and its current flight certificate doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2023.

2004 Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG PC-12-45 single engine prop aircraft seats 11.