Fog Forces Pilot Down on Highway

Without damage and without injury, a 76-year-old northwest suburban pilot on Friday morning landed his small plane on a foggy highway in eastern Illinois.

"He sat it down just fine," Illinois State Police Ashkum District Sgt. Angie Kinstner said of Terence Bolger of Palatine.

Bolger was the only one aboard the aircraft that came to rest on Illinois Route 1 near Milford, about 50 miles south of Tinley Park and 10 miles west of the Indiana state line just after 8:30 a.m.

"The small, amphibious plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to rapidly increasingly bad weather, the fog," Kinstner said.

Bolger landed on the highway and by the time troopers got there, he had already moved the Cub model plane, manufactured by Legend, off into a farmfield, the sergeant said. The roadway is not busy because it is such a rural area, she said.

The plane was later towed to a private airstrip and the road was opened by 10:30 a.m., Kinstner said. The FAA was contacted and Bolger was not issued any citations.

"Everything ended up okay -- just a scare this morning," she said.

The Times-Republic Online has another close-up photo of the plane on its website.