Doctor-pilots mourn loss of Chicago airstrip

The airport's abrupt closure is inconvenient for some, but critical care transport concerns will not likely come to fruition.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. April 28, 2003.

The March closing of Meigs Field, a small-plane airport near the heart of Chicago, has triggered a certain degree of fallout.

Medical transport specialists were left wondering how they were going to fly in critically ill patients headed for downtown hospitals. The Flying Physicians Assn. puzzled over how their members were going to get to their 2004 summer conference in Chicago. And at least one cardiologist who flew his small plane to Chicago last month to attend the American College of Cardiology annual meeting worried about how he was going to get his plane back home.

"It was a nightmare," said George W. Shehl, MD, a cardiologist from Clarksburg, W.Va.

Mayor Richard M. Daley and city emergency management officials closed the airfield March 30. Heavy equipment ripped up the runway during the middle of the night because of security concerns. The lack of warning, however, trapped 16 planes and their pilots, including Dr. Shehl.

Dr. Shehl chooses to fly his plane because he lives more than two hours from the closest large airport. That, combined with additional security measures that have added time to the check-in, makes flying commercial less convenient.

"I probably wouldn't have been to the meeting if I couldn't have flown into Meigs because of the driving hassle and the airline hassle," he said.

[...]

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