Topeka neurosurgeon owned plane that crashed in Chicago suburb, killing three

Three people died late Sunday after a small plane on its way to Lawrence crashed within minutes of taking off from Chicago Midway Airport, authorities said.

The twin-engine Beechcraft Baron was owned by a Kansas firm controlled by a Topeka neurosurgeon, Tausif Rehman, whose colleagues have been trying to reach him Monday.

“We have not been able to reach him this morning,” said Nancy Burkhardt, a spokesperson for Stormont-Vail HealthCare. “We’re hoping for the best.”

Burkhardt confirmed that Rehman is a pilot who owns a plane.

At a press conference in Palos Hills, Ill., officials said they had identified the pilot and his two passengers but were withholding an announcement until relatives had been told.

All the victims were from Kansas, authorities said.

The plane crashed about five minutes after taking off from Midway at 10:35 p.m., officials said. According to online flight records, it had flown from Lawrence to Chicago earlier on Sunday, arriving at Midway at 2:18 p.m.

Skies were overcast at the time of the crash, said John Brannen, a senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

He said the pilot was properly licensed for the aircraft and made no distress call. The plane was “nearly vertical” when it struck trees and the ground, Brannen said.

“The airplane simply dropped off the radar and crashed,” he said.

Deputy Chief James Boie of the Palos Hills Police Department said that when his officers arrived just after 10:40 p.m., they found the crashed plane in the only open lot in the neighborhood for several blocks.

“The airplane missed all the houses,” Boie said. “There were no survivors.”

Boie said the pilot may have tried to avoid the houses, but cautioned that the area was very dark and rain was falling.

A spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said investigators still were on the scene at mid-morning. An announcement on the identification of the crash victims was not likely for several hours, he said.

According to an online profile at U.S. News and World Reports, Rehman has practiced medicine for 12 years and is a 2002 graduate of the Aga Khan Medical College in Pakistan.

He served an internship at Brown University from 2004-2005 and performed residencies in general surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Campus, and in neurological surgery at the University of New Mexico.

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Topeka neurosurgeon owned plane that crashed in Chicago suburb, killing three."