The Biggest Plane To Ever Land At Chicago Midway May Surprise You

I was Director Airport Planning for American, based at our NYC headquarters at the time of the accident and part of the team that left immediately for St. Thomas. We flew to San Juan and transitioned to small aircraft able to land on the short runway with the crash scene off the far end. I had responsibility for the airport ground investigation and at some point, through interviews of various ground personnel, determined the on-airport ARFF (then CRF) equipment responded rapidly but were forced to take a circuitous off-airport route rather than directly follow the path of the aircraft. I recall learning the downtown Charlotte Amalie structural fire station crews arrived on scene well before the airport crash fire rescue crew could reach the burning aircraft. The four CV 240s came out of mothball storage in the Netherlands and were flown to Dothan, AL to be configured as the American Inter-Island fleet, each with forty-four first class seats, rudimentary cockpit instrumentation and communications, and markings closely resembling today's American Eagle aircraft. The operation was wet leased to Antilles Air Boats, owned and operated by Gen. Charles Blair (a USAF legend, married to Maureen O'Hara). Aircraft maintenance was managed and supervised by a retired American Airlines maintenance director. The 240s were equipped with JATO bottles aft in the event of an engine hiccup on TO at STT but were never used to my knowledge. We switched JFK - STT service to B707s to St. Croix (STX). At STX we constructed an expansion to the terminal apron to park 240s in a semi-circle where they would deplane and enplane STT passengers to and from the JFK bound 707 parked adjacent to the ramp extension. It was a smooth operation for several years, allowing construction of the STT runway extension to proceed rather quickly. Cabritaberg Hill, south of the original short runway threshold, was excavated to become the marine fill material for the runway extension. In the process, its removal eliminated the wind shear phenomenon that caused aircraft flotation at touchdown on the former runway. The flattened Hill site is now occupied by the new passenger terminal. Although the interim American Inter-Island operation was successful, the entire episode experienced tragedy, obviously in its beginning, but also sometime afterwards with the death of Charlie Blair in one of his Grumman Goose flying boats. That's another story, having to do with single engine flying on surface effect lift just above the water's surface. The STT 727-100 story has never left me, filled with tragedy and victory, it was the experience of a lifetime for a then still young airport engineer....
George P. Vittas, Bedford, TX, August 2, 2024

St. Thomas USVI with runway lengths 4658' with a 300' hill at the east end back in the day was a big takeoff challenge for DC-3 and Convair CV-240. The Runway was extended years later to 7000' by taking down the hill on the East and filling in the Bay on the Westend to later accommodate 727 & 737 but would have to hop over to St Croix 40 miles south to top off fuel (Max load) before heading back to the main land.

Having worked in KMDW back a number of years ago, I would have never guessed the 757 would be able to do it... but the video proves it... I would hate to be on landing roll out on a 757 and have a TR to fail on landing.... Could prove to be disastrously!

One of my favourite flight simulator airports back in the days of dos

Thanks, Keith, hats off to you, also. Working for American before going out on my own as an airport planner / engineer gave me the understanding truly needed to take care of aviators' and ATC needs on the ground and in the approach airspace. These days, engineers are forced to apply standard criteria in FAA Part 150 Advisory Circulars which are primarily written to manage Airport Improvement Program grant allocations.

I opened this expecting to see the DC-8 named, though after pondering the recesses of my memory the A300 demo was recalled.
I will say I was quite young but my Dad took me to a MDW Open House around ‘71/72 and United brought in a DC-8 for display. I was too young to recall too much but that would have been in the turbojet days. I recall it flew right back to ORD and my Dad, a Naval Aviator at the time, waited around to marvel at the departue.
In the ‘90’s I’d ride my motorcycle to sit below the approaches and I guarantee the 757 had no troubles but the 727’s of ATA and NWA would struggle to clear the fences by 50 ft on a hot night. Much has changed but MDW is the kind of place that makes flying fun.

Living near both Wright-Patt and DAI, I see Globemasters pretty regularly. They punch a nice hole in the air.

I can't help myself. I grew up in Chicago. Did they deploy flares and chaff on the way in?? It is after all a combat zone.

The 757-200 flew regularly to and from SNA, 5700’ runway, easily and consistently making the turnoff at E, probably less than 5000’ from threshold, as someone mentioned earlier, it’s a monster short field machine.

The 757 was easy to get in and out of MDW. The 727 was much more of a lead sled.