Investigators Study Site of Runway Crash

Investigators Study Site of Runway Crash - Yahoo! News

What a tragedy.

Not a surprise, however. In all my many, many flights in and out of Chicago I never even considered using Midway Airport. I thought of it as a little old backward airport really just for small private planes - Cessnas and the like. Many Chicagoans share this attitude, or did when I lived there many years ago. If you wanted to fly somewhere, you went to O'Hare.

As for the weather problem, no surprise either. Those snowstorms Chicago gets sometimes, like this one, when the snow is just pouring out of the sky so thick you can hardly see, are horrible to drive in, hard even to walk in.

I remember the white-outs, the blizzards, the driving sleet, the slush, the ice... The terror of trying to drive in all this - "terror" not being too strong a word, "trying" literally meaning maybe you can and maybe you can't. You try, you attempt it, you give it your best. Whether your car or the road or the other drivers prevent you from reaching your destination is another matter. I've done many a "fishtail", despite my best efforts, I've skid through stop signs to land mid-intersection, I've skidded off the road. This is winter driving in the Midwest. It ultimately is in God's hands. You come to realize and accept that.

It takes some toughness and courage to cope with Chicago weather. It's also why I still, after all these years, laugh at Southern Californians' attitude toward rain. Ooooo, *Winter Storm Watch* - we may get .10" of rain!! We may have an overnight low in the 40s! We may have to drive a little more carefully, and even, a little slower (then they don't do either!).

All in all, though, with this latest Chicago weather disaster, I've decided that it is less dangerous in California than it is in Illinois. The weather will kill you in a hundred different ways in Illinois. No doubt many more people have died in the past 100 years in Illinois from natural disasters (include weather!) than have died here in California from the same. We just have more spectacular disasters out here (quakes, mudslides, wildfires...).

I love Chicago, love it dearly, but, yeah, nice place to visit! I'm glad I'm here in my SoCal beach town. (I so not miss winter driving!)